COMMERCE, Texas (AP) — Zach Calzada passed for 333 yards and three touchdowns, and he rushed for a score as Incarnate Word beat East Texas A&M 38-24 on Saturday to claim the Southland Conference title. Incarnate Word (10-2, 7-0) became the first team in program history to finish undefeated in conference play. The No. 6 Cardinals await the FCS selection show on Sunday to learn the playoff matchups. Calzada came in leading the FCS in passing touchdowns with 30 on the season and No. 6 for passing yards (3,018). He finished 26 of 40 with an interception against East Texas A&M. Incarnate Word linebacker Darius Sanders made his third interception in two games then Calzada launched a 43-yard pass to Jalen Walthall to tie it at 14 midway through the second quarter. The Cardinals' Marcus Brown blocked a 45-yard field-goal attempt that would have broken a tie at 24 early in the fourth. Calzada found wide-open Logan Compton in the end zone for a 31-24 lead. Mason Pierce was also left wide open for an 18-yard score with 2:43 left. Ron Peace was 21 of 38 for 165 yards with one touchdown and one interception for East Texas (3-9, 2-4). He also rushed for a score. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballBARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Celta Vigo gave 10-man Barcelona a shock by scoring two late goals and snatching a 2-2 draw at home in the Spanish league on Saturday. Barcelona was minutes away from a win to pad its league lead after Raphinha and Lewandowski had put Barcelona in control. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.188 jili song 。

By MARC LEVY HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania conceded his reelection bid to Republican David McCormick on Thursday, as a statewide recount showed no signs of closing the gap and his campaign suffered repeated blows in court in its effort to get potentially favorable ballots counted. Casey’s concession comes more than two weeks after Election Day, as a grindingly slow ballot-counting process became a spectacle of hours-long election board meetings, social media outrage, lawsuits and accusations that some county officials were openly flouting the law. Republicans had been claiming that Democrats were trying to steal McCormick’s seat by counting “illegal votes.” Casey’s campaign had accused of Republicans of trying to block enough votes to prevent him from pulling ahead and winning. In a statement, Casey said he had just called McCormick to congratulate him. “As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last,” Casey said. The Associated Press called the race for McCormick on Nov. 7, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead. As of Thursday, McCormick led by about 16,000 votes out of almost 7 million ballots counted. That was well within the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law. But no election official expected a recount to change more than a couple hundred votes or so, and Pennsylvania’s highest court dealt him a blow when it refused entreaties to allow counties to count mail-in ballots that lacked a correct handwritten date on the return envelope. Republicans will have a 53-47 majority next year in the U.S. Senate. Follow Marc Levy at twitter.com/timelywriter

Newspaper Mana: Protest in Print exhibition at Auckland Museum celebrates Māori voices

New Zealand in unanimous support of restoring citizenship to 3,500 Samoans

188 jili turnover Jordan Sears scores 25 points, Jalen Reed has double-double and LSU outlasts UCF 109-102 in 3OTWASHINGTON (AP) — As a former and potentially future president, Donald Trump hailed what would become as a road map for “exactly what our movement will do” with another crack at the White House. As for a hard-right turn in America became a liability during the 2024 campaign, . He denied knowing anything about the “ridiculous and abysmal” plans written in part by his first-term aides and allies. Now, after being elected the 47th president on Nov. 5, Trump is stocking his second administration with key players in the detailed effort he temporarily shunned. Most notably, Trump has tapped for an encore as director of the Office of Management and Budget; Tom Homan, his former immigration chief, as and immigration hardliner Stephen Miller as . Those moves have accelerated criticisms from Democrats who warn that Trump's election hands government reins to movement conservatives who spent years envisioning how to concentrate power in the West Wing and impose a starkly rightward shift across the U.S. government and society. Trump and his aides maintain that he won a mandate to overhaul Washington. But they maintain the specifics are his alone. “President Trump never had anything to do with Project 2025,” said Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “All of President Trumps' Cabinet nominees and appointments are whole-heartedly committed to President Trump's agenda, not the agenda of outside groups.” Here is a look at what some of Trump's choices portend for his second presidency. As budget chief, Vought envisions a sweeping, powerful perch The Office of Management and Budget director, a role Vought held under Trump previously and requires Senate confirmation, prepares a president's proposed budget and is generally responsible for implementing the administration's agenda across agencies. The job is influential but Vought made clear as author of a Project 2025 chapter on presidential authority that he wants the post to wield more direct power. “The Director must view his job as the best, most comprehensive approximation of the President’s mind,” Vought wrote. The OMB, he wrote, “is a President’s air-traffic control system” and should be “involved in all aspects of the White House policy process,” becoming “powerful enough to override implementing agencies’ bureaucracies.” Trump did not go into such details when naming Vought but implicitly endorsed aggressive action. Vought, the president-elect said, “knows exactly how to dismantle the Deep State” — Trump’s catch-all for federal bureaucracy — and would help “restore fiscal sanity.” In June, speaking on former Trump aide Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast, Vought relished the potential tension: “We’re not going to save our country without a little confrontation.” Vought could help Musk and Trump remake government's role and scope The strategy of further concentrating federal authority in the presidency permeates Project 2025's and Trump's campaign proposals. Vought's vision is especially striking when paired with Trump's proposals to dramatically expand the president's control over federal workers and government purse strings — ideas intertwined with the president-elect tapping mega-billionaire Elon Musk and venture capitalist Vivek Ramaswamy to Trump in his first term sought to remake the federal civil service by reclassifying tens of thousands of federal civil service workers — who have job protection through changes in administration — as political appointees, making them easier to fire and replace with loyalists. Currently, only about 4,000 of the federal government's roughly 2 million workers are political appointees. President Joe Biden rescinded Trump's changes. Trump can now reinstate them. Meanwhile, Musk's and Ramaswamy's sweeping “efficiency” mandates from Trump could turn on an old, defunct constitutional theory that the president — not Congress — is the real gatekeeper of federal spending. In his “Agenda 47,” Trump endorsed so-called “impoundment,” which holds that when lawmakers pass appropriations bills, they simply set a spending ceiling, but not a floor. The president, the theory holds, can simply decide not to spend money on anything he deems unnecessary. Vought did not venture into impoundment in his Project 2025 chapter. But, he wrote, “The President should use every possible tool to propose and impose fiscal discipline on the federal government. Anything short of that would constitute abject failure.” Trump's choice immediately sparked backlash. “Russ Vought is a far-right ideologue who has tried to break the law to give President Trump unilateral authority he does not possess to override the spending decisions of Congress (and) who has and will again fight to give Trump the ability to summarily fire tens of thousands of civil servants,” said Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a Democrat and outgoing Senate Appropriations chairwoman. Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico, leading Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, said Vought wants to “dismantle the expert federal workforce” to the detriment of Americans who depend on everything from veterans' health care to Social Security benefits. “Pain itself is the agenda,” they said. Homan and Miller reflect Trump's and Project 2025's immigration overl ap Trump’s protests about Project 2025 always glossed over . Both want to reimpose Trump-era immigration limits. Project 2025 includes a litany of detailed proposals for various U.S. immigration statutes, executive branch rules and agreements with other countries — reducing the number of refugees, work visa recipients and asylum seekers, for example. Miller is one of Trump's longest-serving advisers and architect of his immigration ideas, including his promise of the largest deportation force in U.S. history. As deputy policy chief, which is not subject to Senate confirmation, Miller would remain in Trump's West Wing inner circle. “America is for Americans and Americans only,” Miller said at Trump’s on Oct. 27. “America First Legal,” Miller’s organization founded as an ideological counter to the American Civil Liberties Union, was listed as an advisory group to Project 2025 until Miller asked that the name be removed because of negative attention. Homan, a Project 2025 named contributor, was an acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement director during Trump’s first presidency, playing a key role in what became known as Trump's Previewing Trump 2.0 earlier this year, Homan said: “No one’s off the table. If you’re here illegally, you better be looking over your shoulder.” Project 2025 contributors slated for CIA and Federal Communications chiefs John Ratcliffe, Trump's , was previously one of Trump's directors of national intelligence. He is a Project 2025 contributor. The document's chapter on U.S. intelligence was written by Dustin Carmack, Ratcliffe's chief of staff in the first Trump administration. Reflecting Ratcliffe's and Trump's approach, Carmack declared the intelligence establishment too cautious. Ratcliffe, like the chapter attributed to Carmack, is hawkish toward China. Throughout the Project 2025 document, Beijing is framed as a U.S. adversary that cannot be trusted. Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, wrote Project 2025's FCC chapter and is to chair the panel. Carr wrote that the FCC chairman “is empowered with significant authority that is not shared” with other FCC members. He called for the FCC to address “threats to individual liberty posed by corporations that are abusing dominant positions in the market,” specifically “Big Tech and its attempts to drive diverse political viewpoints from the digital town square.” He called for more stringent transparency rules for social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube and “empower consumers to choose their own content filters and fact checkers, if any.” Carr and Ratcliffe would require Senate confirmation for their posts. ___ Bill Barrow, The Associated PressCHENNAI: Investments by private equity - venture capital (PE-VC) companies could be the lowest in CY2024 when compared with the past six years. With just over a month left in the current calendar year, it is unlikely to touch the PE-VC investment value of last year (2023) at $32.8 billion. The PE-VC investments this year (Jan-Oct) this year stood at $25.6 billion. IPL 2025 mega auction IPL Auction 2025: Who got whom IPL 2025 Auction: Updated Full Team Squads This year, Jan, May and June witnessed investment of $3.5 billion each, while the other months recorded investments ranging from $1.6 billion to $2.7 billion, data released by research firm Venture Intelligence showed. Multiple factors including decline in mega deals exceeding $100 million, global geopolitical implications and denominator effect have severed a blow contributing to the overall dip in PE-VC investments, analysts said. According to Venture Intelligence, PE-VC investments reached its peak in 2021 at $64.9 billion, the highest since 2019. However, it has fallen in the next three years. Venture Intelligence founder Arun Natarajan said, the sharp fall in mega deals (PE-VC investments above $100 million) was the main reason for decrease in the overall investment value. Ready to Master Stock Valuation? ET's Workshop is just around the corner!

Matt Gaetz says he won’t return to Congress next year after withdrawing name for attorney generalHernandez 5-10 0-0 10, Levingston 5-8 0-0 10, Lagway 6-13 0-0 13, Stanton 3-9 3-4 9, Strachan 0-6 2-2 2, Falsdottir 2-5 1-2 7, Muniz 3-7 0-0 7, Totals 24-58 6-8 58 Daniels 3-9 2-5 8, Eke 0-1 0-0 0, Ladine 8-18 3-4 20, Sellers 4-7 1-2 9, Stines 3-9 0-0 7, Gillmer 2-5 0-0 5, McDonald 1-2 0-0 2, Briggs 0-1 0-0 0, Brown 1-1 0-0 3, Coppinger 2-6 2-2 8, Totals 24-59 8-13 62 3-Point Goals_Cal St.-Fullerton 4-9 (Lagway 1-2, Stanton 0-1, Falsdottir 2-2, Muniz 1-4), Washington 6-21 (Daniels 0-2, Ladine 1-5, Stines 1-6, Gillmer 1-3, Brown 1-1, Coppinger 2-4). Assists_Cal St.-Fullerton 12 (Hernandez 4), Washington 10 (Daniels 5). Fouled Out_Cal St.-Fullerton Levingston. Rebounds_Cal St.-Fullerton 25 (Lagway 7, Levingston 7), Washington 42 (Daniels 9). Total Fouls_Cal St.-Fullerton 16, Washington 17. Technical Fouls_None. A_1,575.

Krispy Kreme doughnut deliveries have been disrupted by a cyberattack, the company says. Krispy Kreme stores are open for in-person orders, but the company is "experiencing certain operational disruptions, including with online ordering in parts of the United States," it says in a report filed Wednesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission . In the report, Krispy Kreme said it learned about "unauthorized activity on a portion of its information technology systems" on Nov. 29. The company "immediately began taking steps to investigate, contain, and remediate the incident with the assistance of leading cybersecurity experts," the company said in the report. Online ordering and delivery of doughnuts is unavailable in some areas, but "daily fresh deliveries to our retail and restaurant partners are uninterrupted," Krispy Kreme said in the report. Krispy Kreme began offering doughnuts in some McDonald's locations earlier this year. Customers hankering for Krispy Kreme doughnuts can got to the company website to find a nearby grocery or convenience store that receives deliveries. Holiday deals: Shop this season’s top products and sales curated by our editors. "The Company, along with its external cybersecurity experts, continues to work diligently to respond to and mitigate the impact from the incident, including the restoration of online ordering, and has notified federal law enforcement." Recall: Some batches of MadeGood granola bars recalled over possible metal contamination The investigation of the breach continues and the company doesn't yet know the full impact of the incident. But, the incident will likely have "a material impact on the Company’s business operations until recovery efforts are completed," Krispy Kreme said. However, the incident isn't expected to have "a long-term material impact" on operations and finances, the company said. Expected costs include lost revenue from online sales, costs for cybersecurity experts and any system restoration costs. Cybersecurity insurance "is expected to offset a portion of the costs of the incident," the company said. Shares of the company were down about 2% Wednesday and are down 33% so far this year. Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads: @mikesnider & mikegsnider . What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the dayNone

FBI director Christopher Wray has said he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. At a town hall meeting with the bureau workforce, Mr Wray said he would be stepping down “after weeks of careful thought”. Mr Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Mr Trump had picked Mr Patel for the role in his new administration. Mr Wray had previously been named by Mr Trump and began the 10-year term — a length meant to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Mr Trump fired then-FBI director James Comey. Mr Trump had demonstrated his anger with Mr Wray on multiple occasions, including after Mr Wray’s congressional testimony in September. “My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” Mr Wray told agency employees. “In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.” Mr Wray continued: “It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway — this is not easy for me. I love this place, I love our mission, and I love our people — but my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what’s right for the FBI.” Mr Wray received a standing ovation following his remarks before a standing-room-only crowd at FBI headquarters and some in the audience cried, according to an FBI official who was not authorised to discuss the private gathering and spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press. Mr Trump applauded the news on social media, calling it “a great day for America as it will end the weaponisation of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice” and saying that Mr Patel’s confirmation will begin “the process of Making the FBI Great Again”. If confirmed by the Senate, Mr Patel would herald a radical leadership transformation at the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency. He has advocated shutting down the FBI’s Washington headquarters and called for ridding the federal government of “conspirators”, raising alarm that he might seek to wield the FBI’s significant investigative powers as an instrument of retribution against Mr Trump’s perceived enemies. Mr Patel said in a statement Wednesday that he was looking forward to “a smooth transition. I will be ready to serve the American people on day one”.

WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his agriculture secretary, the last of his picks to lead executive agencies and another choice from within his established circle of advisers and allies. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans when Trump takes office Jan. 20. Rollins would succeed , President Joe Biden’s agriculture secretary who oversees the sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition. Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. Rollins previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The pick completes Trump’s selection of the heads of executive branch departments, just two and a half weeks after the former president won the White House once again. Several other picks that are traditionally Cabinet-level remain, including U.S. Trade Representative and head of the small business administration. Rollins, speaking on the Christian talk show “Family Talk" earlier this year, said Trump was an “amazing boss” and confessed that she thought in 2015, during his first presidential campaign, that he would not last as a candidate in a crowded Republican primary field. “I was the person that said, ‘Oh, Donald Trump is not going to go more than two or three weeks in the Republican primary. This is to up his TV show ratings. And then we’ll get back to normal,’” she said. “Fast forward a couple of years, and I am running his domestic policy agenda.” Trump didn’t offer many specifics about his agriculture policies during the campaign, but farmers could be affected if he carries out his pledge to impose widespread tariffs. During the first Trump administration, countries like China responded to Trump’s tariffs by imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports like the corn and soybeans routinely sold overseas. Trump countered by offering massive multibillion-dollar aid to farmers to help them weather the trade war. President Abraham Lincoln founded the USDA in 1862, when about half of all Americans lived on farms. The USDA oversees multiple support programs for farmers; animal and plant health; and the safety of meat, poultry and eggs that anchor the nation’s food supply. Its federal nutrition programs provide food to low-income people, pregnant women and young children. And the agency sets standards for school meals. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has from school lunches and to stop allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries from using food stamps to buy soda, candy or other so-called junk foods. But it would be the USDA, not HHS, that would be responsible for enacting those changes. In addition, HHS and USDA will work together to finalize the 2025-2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. They are due late next year, with guidance for healthy diets and standards for federal nutrition programs.

Ben Davies is the latest to fall into that category, with the Welsh international initially primed to return for Sunday’s visit of Wolves but no longer available. Davies suffered a setback in training this week, which means Spurs could be without a fit centre-back after Radu Dragusin was forced off in the latter stages of Thursday’s 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest with an ankle issue. Ange with a team news update ahead of Wolves on Sunday 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/0EiYh4TP8j — Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) December 27, 2024 Postecoglou is already without first-choice central defenders Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven after both failed to make it through their comeback fixture against Chelsea on December 7. “Yeah, that’s been our major problem this year. Guys who are coming back from injury rather than us losing players as such,” Postecoglou said. “We’re looking at those things and why they’re happening. It’s certainly happened too often this year where guys have come back and they’re the ones who are missing. “I think just about all of them, apart from Vic (Guglielmo Vicario), are recurrences of an injury. “Even with Romero, it was a different injury but it’s still a guy coming back, so it’s something we’re looking at.” There could be good news on the horizon with attackers Mikey Moore and Richarlison expected to return to training next week. A post shared by Richarlison (@richarlison) Richarlison suffered his own setback in November when his short-lived return after a calf issue was cut short when he injured the same area against Aston Villa. Moore, meanwhile, has been sidelined by a virus for the best part of two months but the 17-year-old could provide a much-needed spark in the new year when Newcastle visit on January 4. Postecoglou said: “Him and Richy are in the final phases. Next week they can start training. We’ve got a bit of a gap before the Newcastle game. “The plan is Mikey and Richy come back into first-team training next week.” Anticipated returns for Moore and Richarlison will fail to help Postecoglou against Wolves, with makeshift centre-back Archie Gray potentially set to partner up with fellow midfielder Yves Bissouma if Dragusin cannot recover. Pressed on the issue of fixture scheduling, with Spurs definitely missing eight players for Sunday’s fixture, Postecoglou said: “It is challenging. “All clubs are going to have to get their heads around it and authorities are going to have to get their heads around it. “One of two things need to happen: either you somehow change the fixture schedule, which doesn’t seem feasible, or you allow clubs bigger squads. Then you have other issues with that, as well. “The attrition rate you’re seeing and it’s not just us. We’re going through a particularly badly moment. Newcastle went through it last year and it affected them pretty badly. They were obviously in the Champions League as well and probably didn’t have the squad to cope with it. “It hits certain clubs at different times and is probably becoming more prevalent, and for all of us it’s a challenge as to how we navigate this process to keep our players healthy. “It’s not just a physical thing, it’s a mental thing. For us it’s been constant since August and we’re not even halfway through the year. And they’re not going to get a break now, so these things we’re constantly assessing.”

Saturday, December 28, 2024 Cuba’s tourism sector, once a vital economic lifeline, is faltering as the country battles chronic power shortages, a stuttering economy, and the ongoing effects of a decades-long U.S. embargo. Compounding these challenges, the possibility of tighter restrictions under the potential return of Donald Trump’s administration looms large. Tourism in the Dark In cities like Trinidad, known for its colonial charm and proximity to national parks, visitors are greeted by warm evenings but also by frequent power cuts. Guests staying in private accommodations, or casas particulares, often find themselves relying on camping lamps during blackouts, as electricity outages can last hours. Restaurants and hotels power through with generators, but smaller businesses struggle to keep up. Across the island, power shortages disrupt daily life in major tourist hubs, including Havana, Santa Clara, and Vinales. Electricity is sometimes available for only a few hours each day, creating a challenging environment for travelers and business owners alike. A hostel owner in Old Havana described the situation as “very, very difficult,” noting a significant drop in tourist numbers. While his central location ensures a steady stream of guests, others face dwindling bookings, particularly in areas more severely affected by power cuts. Tourism’s Struggles Post-COVID Cuba has been slow to recover from the downturn in tourism caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Emily Morris, a senior research fellow at University College London, attributes the sluggish rebound to U.S. sanctions, which have cut visitor numbers to around half of pre-pandemic levels. The sanctions have also led to foreign exchange shortages, undermining the quality of hotels and facilities. Repairs are delayed, staff morale has declined, and these issues are increasingly reflected in negative reviews, further discouraging visitors. Power Crisis Rooted in Sanctions Cuba’s power shortages stem from a “confluence of different issues,” according to Dr. Helen Yaffe, a political studies expert. U.S. sanctions restrict Cuba’s access to international credit and essential equipment, while also complicating fuel procurement, which hampers power generation. A nationwide blackout in October underscored the fragility of the island’s energy infrastructure. Recent efforts to reduce vulnerability to power outages have shown some progress, with quicker recovery times after incidents. Cuba is also ramping up its solar energy capacity, aiming for renewables to constitute nearly a quarter of its energy mix by 2030. These efforts are often supported by Chinese suppliers, reflecting Cuba’s pivot toward nations outside the U.S. sphere of influence. A Shrinking Population and Economy Beyond power and tourism struggles, Cuba faces a declining population and economic hardship. With shortages of basic medicines and widespread poverty, many citizens are emigrating in search of better opportunities. The World Health Organization forecasts that Cuba’s population, currently around 11 million, could drop to 9.4 million by 2050. Signs of economic distress are evident across the island, from dilapidated housing blocks to the reliance on horse-drawn carts and oxen for transportation and farming. Despite these challenges, the Cuban government under President Miguel Díaz-Canel continues to prioritize energy independence and resilience. A Complex Political Landscape The strained relationship between Havana and Washington, which briefly thawed under Barack Obama, has since hardened. In the latter part of his first term, Donald Trump designated Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, discouraging travel and financial remittances. If Trump returns to office, experts expect further restrictions, particularly under the influence of Senator Marco Rubio, a vocal opponent of the Cuban regime. Dr. Yaffe suggests that the U.S. aims to create conditions for Cubans to turn against their government. However, she sees little sign of internal collapse, noting that most vocal critics of the regime have left the country. Younger Cubans, while less ideologically aligned with the revolution, appear more focused on personal survival than political upheaval. Outlook for Cuba While Cuba’s economic and social challenges are stark, the country’s resilience remains a defining feature. The energy transition, strengthened ties with nations like China, and the enduring determination of its people suggest that while the road ahead may be difficult, Cuba is not on the brink of collapse. For now, the nation faces the dual task of weathering its internal crises and navigating the external pressures of its geopolitical environment.WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump said Saturday that he will nominate former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his agriculture secretary, the last of his picks to lead executive agencies and another choice from within his established circle of advisers and allies. The nomination must be confirmed by the Senate, which will be controlled by Republicans when Trump takes office Jan. 20. Rollins would succeed Tom Vilsack , President Joe Biden’s agriculture secretary who oversees the sprawling agency that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, forestry, ranching, food quality and nutrition. Then-President Donald Trump looks to Brooke Rollins, president and CEO of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, as she speaks during a Jan. 11, 2018, prison reform roundtable in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. Rollins previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The pick completes Trump’s selection of the heads of executive branch departments, just two and a half weeks after the former president won the White House once again. Several other picks that are traditionally Cabinet-level remain, including U.S. Trade Representative and head of the small business administration. Brooke Rollins, assistant to the president and director of the Domestic Policy Council at the time, speaks during a May 18, 2020, meeting with restaurant industry executives about the coronavirus response in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Rollins, speaking on the Christian talk show “Family Talk" earlier this year, said Trump was an “amazing boss” and confessed that she thought in 2015, during his first presidential campaign, that he would not last as a candidate in a crowded Republican primary field. “I was the person that said, ‘Oh, Donald Trump is not going to go more than two or three weeks in the Republican primary. This is to up his TV show ratings. And then we’ll get back to normal,’” she said. “Fast forward a couple of years, and I am running his domestic policy agenda.” Trump didn’t offer many specifics about his agriculture policies during the campaign, but farmers could be affected if he carries out his pledge to impose widespread tariffs. During the first Trump administration, countries like China responded to Trump’s tariffs by imposing retaliatory tariffs on U.S. exports like the corn and soybeans routinely sold overseas. Trump countered by offering massive multibillion-dollar aid to farmers to help them weather the trade war. Brooke Rollins speaks at an Oct. 27 campaign rally for then-Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden in New York. President Abraham Lincoln founded the USDA in 1862, when about half of all Americans lived on farms. The USDA oversees multiple support programs for farmers; animal and plant health; and the safety of meat, poultry and eggs that anchor the nation’s food supply. Its federal nutrition programs provide food to low-income people, pregnant women and young children. And the agency sets standards for school meals. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has vowed to strip ultraprocessed foods from school lunches and to stop allowing Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries from using food stamps to buy soda, candy or other so-called junk foods. But it would be the USDA, not HHS, that would be responsible for enacting those changes. In addition, HHS and USDA will work together to finalize the 2025-2030 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. They are due late next year, with guidance for healthy diets and standards for federal nutrition programs. Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Associated Press writers Josh Funk and JoNel Aleccia contributed to this report. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. McGinley was White House Cabinet secretary during Trump's first administration, and was outside legal counsel for the Republican National Committee's election integrity effort during the 2024 campaign. In a statement, Trump called McGinley “a smart and tenacious lawyer who will help me advance our America First agenda, while fighting for election integrity and against the weaponization of law enforcement.” Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

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However, the seeds of discontent had long been sown. Years of economic mismanagement, human rights abuses, and a brutal crackdown on dissent had eroded the people's trust in the regime. The spark that ignited the flames of revolution came in 2011, with the Arab Spring protests sweeping across the region. The Syrian people, inspired by the wave of change, took to the streets demanding freedom, dignity, and an end to Assad's oppressive rule.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell says it was a really easy decision to sign with the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers and the presence of three-time MVP Shohei Ohtani played a part, too. Snell was introduced Tuesday at Dodger Stadium accompanied by his agent Scott Boras. The left-hander finalized a $182 million, five-year contract last Saturday. “It was really easy just cause me and Haeley wanted to live here, it’s something we’ve been talking about for a while,” Snell said, referring to his girlfriend. “Then you look at the team. You look at what they’ve built, what they’re doing. It’s just something you want to be a part of.” Last month, Snell opted out of his deal with San Francisco to become a free agent for the second consecutive offseason after he was slowed by injuries during his lone year with the San Francisco Giants. Snell gets a $52 million signing bonus, payable on Jan. 25, and annual salaries of $26 million, of which $13.2 million each year will be deferred. Because Snell is a Washington state resident, the signing bonus will not be subject to California income tax. “It just played out the way that people around me felt comfortable with, I felt comfortable with, they felt comfortable with,” Snell said. “We talked and found something that could work for both of us. You want your worth, you want your respect, and you want enough time to where you can really make a name for yourself. I’ve made a name for myself outside of LA, but I’m going to be invested.” Two-way star Ohtani, who signed a record $700 million, 10-year deal a year ago, had a historic first season with the Dodgers. He helped them win the franchise’s eighth World Series while playing only as designated hitter and became MVP in the National League for the first time after twice winning the award while in the American League. “It helps with him in the lineup for sure. That’s big motivation,” Snell said. “You want to be around players like that when you’re trying to be one of the best in the game. Yeah, it played a big part.” Snell joins Ohtani and fellow Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto atop Los Angeles’ rotation. All-Star Tyler Glasnow will be back after having his first season in LA derailed by a sprained elbow. Ohtani didn’t pitch this year while recovering from right elbow surgery but is expected back on the mound in 2025. The rest of the rotation includes Tony Gonsolin, Landon Knack, Dustin May, Bobby Miller and Emmet Sheehan. “I pitched on six-man, five-man, four-man rotations,” Snell said. “I’m good with it all as long as we have a plan, we’ll execute it.” Snell, who turns 32 on Wednesday, went 5-3 with a 3.12 ERA in 20 starts this year, throwing a no-hitter at Cincinnati on Aug. 2 for one of only 16 individual shutouts in the major leagues this season. He struck out 145 and walked 44 in 104 innings. He was sidelined between April 19 and May 22 by a strained left adductor and between June 2 and July 9 by a strained left groin. Snell won Cy Young Awards in 2018 with Tampa Bay and 2023 with San Diego. He is 76-58 with a 3.19 ERA in nine seasons with the Rays (2016-20), Padres (2021-23) and Giants. He has known Andrew Friedman, Dodgers president of baseball operations, since he was 18. In the aftermath of winning the World Series and discussing how the Dodgers could repeat next year, Friedman said, “All conversations kept coming back to Blake.” Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. “Usually in major league free agency, you’re buying the backside of a guy’s career, the accomplishments that they have had,” he said. “With Blake, one thing that’s really exciting for us is, as much success as he’s had, we feel like there’s more in there.” Snell was 2-2 against the Dodgers in his career. “We couldn’t beat him, so we’re going to have him join us,” Friedman said. .___ AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB Advertisement Advertisement5 Perfect Holiday Gifts For The Military Aviation AficionadoOpposition Leader Peter Dutton had confirmed he would only display the Australian flag as prime minister, as he has in opposition, opting not to replicate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trio of the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News last night, Dutton said he was “very strongly of the belief” that we should be “united under one flag”. Peter Dutton. Credit: AFR “We’re asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that,” Dutton said. “We are dividing our country unnecessarily.” Dutton concluded that while we should have respect for the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags, they are “not our national flags”. Asked about Dutton’s confirmation on Nine’s Today this morning, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said he was “trying to get a headline”. “I think we can take a lot of pride in our history and the future of this country,” she said. “I think this is Peter Dutton just doing what he knows how to do best. Try and get a headline with no substance, no real policies about, for example, tackling cost of living or things that really matter to the Australian people.” Also speaking to Today , Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said Australians “want to be united as one”. “I’m excited to be part of a future Dutton government if we get that great privilege. And to restore the primacy of the Australian flag.” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has weighed in on Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s decision to play tennis in Perth on Saturday, as he faced criticism for taking to the court a day after the Adass Israel synagogue firebombing. Albanese was in Perth when the terror attack took place on Friday, where he remained through the weekend before returning to Canberra. On Monday, the PM defended the tennis match, saying that after he concluded six appointments on Saturday, including a private visit to a synagogue, he “did some exercise”. A social media photo showing Anthony Albanese playing tennis in Perth. “That’s what people do,” he said. Dutton came to the PM’s defence when he was asked about the tennis match on radio this morning. “I think the prime minister deserves some downtime, he’s got a busy job and deserves some time with his family and friends,” Dutton said. “I don’t begrudge him that.” But Dutton criticised Albanese for being slow in “calling this out as a terrorist attack”. “I think the prime minister has been trying to win Green votes in inner-city Melbourne and Sydney, and I think he’s taken a decision, a very deliberate decision, to hedge his bets when it comes to Israel and the Jewish community,” he said. “I think it’s divided our country.” A police operation to clamp down on illegal electric motorbike use has been bestowed with what might be the quirkiest name of 2024. With echoes of Boaty McBoatface , Operation Zappo Stoppie is tasked with reducing the illegal use of unregistered electric bikes in the Noosa area. A 58-year-old Sunshine Beach man was fined this week for allegedly allowing his teenage children to ride unregistered vehicles after a previous warning. Under Operation Zappo Stoppie, police have charged 24 people, completed 27 street checks, warned 31 children, issued eight infringements and impounded three bikes. “The rules around the use of a motorbike doesn’t change, regardless of if it’s powered by petrol or an electric battery,” Noosa Heads Senior Constables Danny Baker said in a statement. “We will continue with enforcement activities like Operation Zappo Stoppie.” Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had confirmed he would only display the Australian flag as prime minister, as he has in opposition, opting not to replicate Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s trio of the Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. Speaking to Peta Credlin on Sky News last night, Dutton said he was “very strongly of the belief” that we should be “united under one flag”. Peter Dutton. Credit: AFR “We’re asking people to identify with different flags, no other country does that,” Dutton said. “We are dividing our country unnecessarily.” Dutton concluded that while we should have respect for the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags, they are “not our national flags”. Asked about Dutton’s confirmation on Nine’s Today this morning, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said he was “trying to get a headline”. “I think we can take a lot of pride in our history and the future of this country,” she said. “I think this is Peter Dutton just doing what he knows how to do best. Try and get a headline with no substance, no real policies about, for example, tackling cost of living or things that really matter to the Australian people.” Also speaking to Today , Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie said Australians “want to be united as one”. “I’m excited to be part of a future Dutton government if we get that great privilege. And to restore the primacy of the Australian flag.” A trio wanted over the attack on a synagogue remain on the run, as the Joint Counter Terror Team takes over the investigation into Friday’s arson at the Adass Israel Synagogue at Ripponlea in Melbourne’s south-east. Authorities declared the fire a likely terror attack on Monday and confirmed investigators were looking for three suspects, but would not give details on who the attackers might be. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Australian Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw and Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced the antisemitism task force on Monday. Credit: AAPIMAGE Monday’s terror declaration opens up a raft of extra powers for investigators including the ability to stop, search and seize people without a warrant as well as detain and question those they believe have knowledge of, or links to, the attack. The JCTT is made up of state and federal police and ASIO officers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also declared a federal taskforce to investigate acts of antisemitism in recent months. Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says her government is looking at introducing laws to protect people at places of worship from protesters, similar to the state’s laws for abortion clinics. The community has vowed to rebuild the synagogue, built by Holocaust survivors, after Torahs, books and papers were destroyed by fire and water, and walls inside the building collapsed. Read more about the investigation here. Along with the mugginess in Brisbane since the weekend, we’re expecting a high chance of showers today. The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a 80 per cent of showers, most likely from late this morning. The mercury should reach 28 degrees today, a maximum it’s predicted to hit – give or take a few degrees – every day for the rest of the week. Here’s the seven-day outlook: Stories making the rounds beyond Brisbane this morning include: Police have taken Luigi Mangione into custody over the shooting death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Credit: Luigi Mangione The man suspected of killing a UnitedHealth executive in a brazen shooting outside a Manhattan hotel last week has been arrested . The suspect, identified as Luigi Mangione, 26, was spotted at a McDonald’s by someone who believed he resembled the gunman. The Coalition is standing by its stated goal of reducing permanent migration after scrapping a separate pledge to cut the number of net arrivals to 160,000 a year, as an exclusive survey shows strong majority support for a lower intake. Rupert Murdoch with children Elisabeth, Lachlan and James. Credit: Jamie Brown A Nevada commissioner has ruled against Rupert Murdoch’s bid to change his family trust to consolidate control of his media empire in the hands of his son Lachlan. Jews around the world will be warned about the risk of antisemitic attacks when visiting Australia under a travel advisory issued by a US-based Jewish human rights organisation following the firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue by suspected terrorists. Forty Australian women and children trapped in a detention camp in Syria say the conditions on the ground in the war-torn country are deteriorating and they fear the chaos that might follow the overthrow of the central government. Good morning, thanks for joining us for Brisbane Times’ live news blog. It’s Tuesday, December 10, and we’re expecting showers today and a top temperature of 28 degrees. In this morning’s local headlines: As the Kangaroo Point Bridge opens this weekend and ferry services from Mowbray Park return, those hoping for a riverside bike and walking path all the way to East Brisbane will be left waiting , documents obtained by this masthead reveal. An Instagram influencer has admitted in Brisbane Magistrates Court to using her job at a government health agency to help a drug dealer obtain mobile phones through identity theft . MPs elevated to chair Queensland parliamentary committees may get less attention than ministers or opposition frontbenchers, but they wield a lot of influence, and enjoy a $64,364 boost to their $183,985 base salary . So far, this summer has been much stickier than usual. Escaping the heat and humidity has not been easy, with many relying on running their air-conditioners day and night. So what’s causing it? And Australian swimming legend Dawn Fraser is recovering in hospital after suffering serious injuries in a fall at her home on the Sunshine Coast.

In the bustling world of celebrity culture and entertainment, even the simplest change can make a big impact. Recently, the famous celebrity couple Xiang Zuo and Zhao Xiaohua caused a stir on social media when they decided to switch up their looks with a trip to the hair salon. The resulting transformation not only impressed their fans but also brought a new wave of excitement to their shared passion for cooking.As the transfer window approaches and speculation swirls around Rashford's future, Manchester United fans will be watching closely to see how the situation unfolds. Whatever the outcome, one thing is certain: the decision to sell Rashford would have far-reaching implications for Manchester United and could shape the club's future trajectory in the years to come.

As Wu Jinyan steps into this new chapter of her life, she does so with grace, elegance, and a heart full of love. Her photos in the snow not only showcase her outer beauty but also radiate the inner strength and joy that comes with the anticipation of welcoming a new life into the world.

188 x2 WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices' decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which restrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender health care for minors. Supporters of transgender rights rally Wednesday outside the Supreme Court in Washington. In arguments that lasted more than two hours, five of the six conservative justices voiced varying degrees of skepticism over arguments made by the administration and Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer for Tennessee families challenging the ban. Chief Justice John Roberts, who voted in the majority in a 2020 case in favor of transgender rights, questioned whether judges, rather than lawmakers, should weigh in on a question of regulating medical procedures, an area usually left to the states. "The Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor," Roberts said in an exchange with Strangio. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion in 2020, said nothing during the arguments. The court's three liberal justices seemed firmly on the side of the challengers, but it's not clear that any conservatives will go along. People attend a rally March 31, 2023, as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility, near the Capitol in Washington. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the assertion that the democratic process would be the best way to address objections to the law. She cited a history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to studies. There are an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 adolescents ages 13 to 17 who identify as transgender, according the UCLA law school's Williams Institute. "Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn't protect them. It didn't protect women for whole centuries," Sotomayor said in an exchange with Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she saw some troubling parallels between arguments made by Tennessee and those advanced by Virginia and rejected by a unanimous court, in the 1967 Loving decision that legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Quoting from that decision, Jackson noted that Virginia argued then that "the scientific evidence is substantially in doubt and, consequently, the court should defer to the wisdom of the state legislature." ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, left, and plaintiff Joaquin Carcano address reporters after a June 25, 2018, hearing in Winston-Salem, N.C., on their lawsuit challenging the law that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill." Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly pressed Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue at the nation's highest court, about whether transgender people should be legally designated as a group that's susceptible to discrimination. Strangio answered that being transgender does fit that legal definition, though he acknowledged under Alito's questioning there are a small number of people who de-transition. "So it's not an immutable characteristic, is it?" Alito said. Strangio did not retreat from his view, though he said the court did not have to decide the issue to resolve the case in his clients' favor. There were dueling rallies outside the court in the hours before the arguments. Speeches and music filled the air on the sidewalk below the court's marble steps. Advocates of the ban bore signs like "Champion God's Design" and "Kids Health Matters," while the other side proclaimed "Fight like a Mother for Trans Rights" and "Freedom to be Ourselves." Four years ago, the court ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired by a Michigan funeral home after she informed its owner she was a transgender woman. The court held that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. The Biden administration and the families and health care providers who challenged the Tennessee law urged the justices to apply the same sort of analysis that the majority, made up of liberal and conservative justices, embraced in the case four years ago when it found that "sex plays an unmistakable role" in employers' decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate. Demonstrators against transgender rights protest Wednesday during a rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. The issue in the Tennessee case is whether the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. Tennessee's law bans puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors, but allows the same drugs to be used for other purposes. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, called the law sex-based line drawing to ban the use of drugs that have been safely prescribed for decades and said the state "decided to completely override the views of the patients, the parents, the doctors." She contrasted the Tennessee law with one enacted by West Virginia, which set conditions for the health care for transgender minors, but stopped short of an outright ban. Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. For many trans and nonbinary people, bathrooms can be complicated places to navigate — a fact highlighted by the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in Oklahoma. Oklahoma is far from an outlier when it comes to failing to provide safe and equitable bathrooms for transgender people. According to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ+ policy, 13 states have a policy that prevents transgender people from safely or legally using public bathrooms. But data shows that even in states with trans-friendly policies, transgender and nonbinary people report high rates of harassment in public bathrooms. Advocates say everyday people can have a big impact in interrupting discrimination in gendered restrooms. The 19th shows how anyone can help prevent abuse. Sex-segregated restrooms have historically been a hostile space for Tat Bellamy-Walker, a Seattle-based journalist and Black gender-fluid trans person. In graduate school and at journalism internships, they had to go far out of their way to find all-gender single-stall restrooms they could use safely. "You never forget being told you don't belong in a restroom, you never forget not having a place to dispose of sanitary products if you're on your period in the men's bathroom," Bellamy-Walker said. "It's just clear you do not belong in public spaces." Allies can help tremendously by locating and pointing out gender-neutral bathrooms to friends or family who might need them. This is especially important for people planning events or parties. Make sure your space has safe bathrooms. Carrie Soto, a South Dakota parent of a transgender child, said she lives by the mantra "see something, say something." That means speaking up when there is bullying and harassment and volunteering to accompany a trans/nonbinary friend or family member when they have to head into a public bathroom. "Validate a trans person's fears and anxiety about the situation," Soto said. " If [my daughter] uses a gendered restroom and feels anxious, I go with." It may seem obvious, but transgender health advocate Jamison Green notes this step can really help trans people feel safe. Consider first that according to 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey , 59 percent of trans people avoided using a public restroom due to fear of harassment. Data from 2022 found that 6 percent of trans people said they were physically or verbally attacked while trying to use a bathroom, while 4 percent were denied access to a bathroom. "If you see someone who you clock as trans or nonbinary, just smile or pay them a non-provocative compliment. ... Wish them good day or good evening, and move on," Green said. "Of course that only goes for the women's room! In the men's room, talking is extremely rare." Green recommends that cisgender people offer a kind, silent nod. Twenty-two states and Washington, D.C., allow residents to opt for "X" gender markers on their IDs in addition to selecting "M" or "F." Still, in every state, regardless of laws, most bathrooms in government buildings, schools, businesses, places of worship and cultural institutions are gendered. Advocates say people can help change this by simply asking businesses and building owners for more options to accommodate all genders. "Advocacy is the most important part of the fight for transgender rights," Lambda Legal notes in its guide to restrooms. "And if employers adopt pro-trans policies proactively, instead of waiting for a transgender person to pave the way, there's much less chance of having problems down the line." The internet is full of rants not appropriate for a news article about people using the only single-stall gender-neutral bathrooms available not for safety but for ... well, pooping. As a result, gender-neutral bathrooms, especially in airports, are almost always occupied. There are many reasons why a cisgender person might need a single-occupancy bathroom (accessibility, illness, child care and, yes, even a little more privacy). Just like accessible stalls, it's a kindness to leave gender-neutral restrooms unoccupied when you don't need them. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Mikel Arteta hails Arsenal ruthless in Sporting CP win: 'We played with so much courage'

NEW YORK (AP) — Matías Tarnopolsky will become president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic on Jan. 1 after six years heading the Philadelphia Orchestra, a hiring boosted by his long friendship with . Tarnopolsky's appointment was announced Monday. The 54-year-old, who has American, British and Argentine citizenship, fills a void created when Gary Ginstling quit in July just one season into the job. “He’s done a really wonderful job with Philadelphia, and one of the most important issues was that he has a very close relationship with Gustavo Dudamel,” philharmonic co-chairman Peter W. May said. “That was really the most important factor for us.” Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tarnopolsky played clarinet and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music and musicology from King's College, London. A performance of Mahler’s Fifth Symphony by Leonard Bernstein and the Vienna Philharmonic at the 1987 BBC Proms had an especially memorable impact. He was the New York Philharmonic's vice president of artistic planning from December 2005 until August 2009, then spent nine years as executive director of Cal Performances at Berkeley until moving to Philadelphia in 2018. Cal hosted Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in several residencies. He called his return to the New York Philharmonic along with Dudamel a “full circle moment,” recalling hitting it off with the conductor during a work visit to Caracas. “I watched him work with the kids of the Simón Bolivar and was just blown away, and so we invited him to conduct the New York Philharmonic. So this is a story almost two decades in the making,” Tarnopolsky said in an interview. as executive director from Washington's National Symphony Orchestra. “Frankly, it just wasn’t a good fit from both Gary's perspective and our perspective," May told The Associated Press. "Matías clearly had significantly more experience than Gary has had in terms of leading one of the top orchestras in the country and we're quite confident that this is the right guy for the job.” Philharmonic co-chairman Oscar L. Tang said Tarnopolsky is aligned with the vision held by Dudamel and the board. “Gustavo says that he feels classical music is a human right and he wants to view classical music as a force for social development, social good,” Tang said. “These are some of the aspirations that Peter and I have for the New York Phil in terms of extending its role in the cultural and civic life of New York City and really the country and the world.” The New York Philharmonic in October 2022, announced . Borda said guest conductors have been engaged and a tour has been arranged for Dudamel's first season, with his approval, but much of the 2026-27 programming remains open. “Here’s a chance that comes along maybe once in a lifetime to author a completely new chapter for a great musical institution,” Tarnopolsky said. “The commitment here is to rededicate ourselves to ensuring the philharmonic’s place in the civic, cultural, musical, educational life of contemporary New York.” Ryan Fleur, the Philadelphia Orchestra's executive director, will become its interim president on Jan. 1, a role he held for eight months in 2018 between Allison Vulgamore's departure and Tarnopolsky's arrival. ___ This story corrects that Matías Tarnopolsky headed Philadelphia Orchestra six years. Ronald Blum, The Associated Press“We are sending a very clear message in Pennsylvania, the use of AI to harm others, especially our children, will not be tolerated,” said state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick.

UMass football: Amid coaching search, pair of blunders has athletic department in the spotlightDivyendu Sharma is now almost synonymous with the character of Munna Bhaiya that he portrayed on screen in the popular OTT series Mirzapur. His acting prowess is impeccable and the actor has been successful in portraying a variety of roles in the last couple of years, some went on to become remarkable while the others did not appeal much to the audience. Netizens are however extremely glad about a piece of news related to the actor that was shared on Instagram earlier today. There is a lot of hype around Ram Charan's next 'RC16' and Divyendu has also joined the cast of the film. Vriddhi Cinemas shared this news on social media and wrote, "Our favourite 'Munna Bhayya' will light up the big screens in a spectacular role tailor made for him." They further added, "Team #RC16 welcomes the incredibly talented and the compelling performer @divyendu on board." A post shared by Vriddhi Cinemas (@vriddhicinemas) In the poster, Divyendu can be seen in an animal print shirt and messy hair posing with a gun with a smirk on his face. This look of the actor has intrigued his fans and they definitely want to know more. Actor and casting director Abhishek Banerjee could not control his excitement and commented a "Wohooooo" on the post. Fans very warmly also congratulated and welcomed him into the Telegu film industry, a comment on the Instagram post read, "Munna bhai welcome to the Telugu film industry." After the poster release on Instagram, Reddit users did not back down from discussing Divyendu's success. Comments on the thread read, "Now Divyenndu can really say "Jalwa hai humara", while another said, "Waiting for Divyenndu to say "Jalwa Hai Hamara" in the film." Not only that but fans and followers also shared that they were "happy" that an actor as talented as him was getting the right recognition, a user wrote, "Happy bro is getting work." Divyendu Sharma made his Bollywood debut with Pyaar Ka Punchnama back in 2011 and then went on to do quite a few roles before portraying the role of Munna Bhaiya in Mirzapur. He was last seen in Kunal Khemu's directorial debut 'Madgaon Express.' 'Cheap, cringe': Kiara Advani's apsara look, chemistry with Ram Charan in Game Changer leaves fans unimpressed How a crumbled sheet of paper cost Amaran makers Rs 1 crore in penalty Ram Charan faces flak for visiting dargah; wife Upanasa defends with powerful reply

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens has become known as one of the most troublesome — and entertaining — wide receivers in the NFL and is often able to give defensive backs bad days at the office. However, one Cleveland Browns safety, Rodney McLeod Jr., explained to The Ken Carman Show , a local Cleveland sports radio show, how the Browns were able to mess with Pickens. “I think there is a lot that we can do to obviously get in his head that works to our advantage,” he said. Pickens has been known for his temper when things do not go his way, throwing multiple tantrums in the past when the Steelers' offense was woeful. Now, with two new quarterbacks, he has been getting the ball plenty, but he can still lose his cool on opponents. According to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com , Pickens could face punishment for his role in a scrap with Browns cornerback Greg Newsome in Week 12. “The NFL will review George Pickens instigating a fight with Browns cornerback Greg Newsome after the Hail Mary at the end of the Browns' 24-19 upset of the Steelers, and a fine could be coming.” This would be his third fine of the season; Pickens also lost money for pulling a Cowboys player down by his facemask at the end of Pittsburgh’s loss to Dallas in Week 5 and excessively stiff-arming the facemask of a Washington Commander. GP clearly cannot stand to lose, nor to play less than great. He was held to four catches for 48 yards against the Browns, a mark lower than any since that last loss to Dallas back in Week 5. The similarities between the situations are stark, and the stats show a correlation between Pickens' success and the Steelers' success, which makes sense as their only starting-caliber wideout. They just have to keep him focused on football. Other than that, Pickens has been mostly dominant, becoming one of the best statistical deep-ball wideouts in the NFL since Russell Wilson took over, and Pickens has the sixth-most yards receiving overall. McLeod and the rest of the Cleveland defense will have to bring out their bag of tricks again in two weeks when they travel to Pittsburgh to stop the star receiver. We will see if Pickens can cool his fire just a bit by then, focus on the game, and change the story the next time around.LendingTree CEO Douglas Lebda buys $516,360 in common stock

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WINNIPEG — Mike O’Shea stood in front of reporters Friday and kept his cool while answering questions about the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ 41-24 Grey Cup loss to the Toronto Argonauts last weekend. The head coach was asked if he made a mistake keeping injured quarterback Zach Collaros in the game, why star running back Brady Oliveira didn’t get the ball more and whether a flawed game plan led to Winnipeg’s third consecutive championship loss. “As an entire team, we didn’t have our best game,” O’Shea said in his end-of-the-season press conference. “We didn’t lack effort. We didn’t lack desire. “We didn’t have our best game as an entire team. Three phases. Coaches — everybody. Me especially.” O’Shea admitted he missed calling a timeout in the fourth quarter when there were only 11 Blue Bombers on the field instead of 12. “I don't get the count over the headset as quickly as I probably need to, we can't count. As I'm seeing a guy come off, that's the right time for that timeout that I should have used,” O’Shea said. He also said he should have used a challenge flag earlier on a play he didn’t identify, and checked on his players more during the game. But hindsight wouldn’t change his decision to put Collaros back in the game after the index finger on his throwing hand was cut deep when it hit a defender’s helmet. “He absolutely deserves every opportunity to lead this team,” O’Shea said. “From what I saw and from chatting with him very briefly, I felt really comfortable with that. I didn't think it was going to be easy, but I thought it's Zach, so...” The injury to Collaros’s finger happened late in the third quarter when the Blue Bombers were trailing the Argonauts 17-10. The veteran left the game and returned with a bandaged finger that needed five stitches and a numbing agent. He wore a glove on the hand and told reporters earlier this week it was difficult to grip the ball. Collaros said he warned receivers in the huddle his throws might not have the usual zip and they should be prepared to come back for the ball. “(I) saw him delivering the ball on the sidelines. Then you see him deliver a couple balls out there and some of them are pretty damn good, right?” O’Shea said. “The awareness of Zach to say to the receivers, ‘hey, work a little harder for me,’ I think it’s natural and what should be said. I think they already know that.” When Collaros re-entered the game, he threw interceptions in back-to-back series. “On one of them he got rid of the ball and I thought it was a good ball and the defensive player made a good play,” O’Shea said of the picks. “One slipped right out of his hand or I don't know if it got tipped or not. You've got to give him that opportunity.” Oliveira was questioning his lack of opportunities in the game when he spoke to reporters earlier in the week. The CFL’s newly minted most outstanding player and top Canadian only had 11 carries for 84 yards and one late touchdown. About 17 or 18 run plays were called, O’Shea said. “One starts off with a procedure penalty in the first and then six of those get pulled because there's X number of guys in the box or the read says this is not a run play anymore, this is now a pass play,” he said. “You call that many runs and then a pile of them get pulled because of the structure of the defence. That's OK with me at that point.” O’Shea said Bombers offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce has been granted permission to talk to CFL teams with head-coaching job openings. The B.C. Lions are reportedly interested in Pierce. The Edmonton Elks also have a vacant head coach spot. If Pierce doesn’t become a head coach, O’Shea said he wants him to stay in Winnipeg. He believes Pierce had the offence “extremely well-prepared” for the Grey Cup. “I’m never going to question the play-calling, and I think what’s going on here is we’re questioning,” O’Shea said. “We’re trying to find blame and fault when that’s nowhere in our DNA of how we built this eight, nine, 10 years ago. We’re starting to try and find all these answers and question all these people that were 0-4 and 2-6 and then 10-1, and we just didn’t play our best game.” The Bombers finished 11-7 and claimed the West Division title that earned them a fifth consecutive trip to the Grey Cup. They won the championship in 2019 and ’21, but lost 28-24 to the Montreal Alouettes last year and 24-23 to Toronto in 2023. “We're the same group that got there, that went on a phenomenal run after a bad start, and a bad start for a lot of reasons that we overcame,” O’Shea said. “I just, I don't question any of it. I look for answers, too. I watch the film over and over and over again. And look to already make notes on how we're going to be better, how we're going to get back there again.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 22, 2024. Judy Owen, The Canadian Press

“We are sending a very clear message in Pennsylvania, the use of AI to harm others, especially our children, will not be tolerated,” said state Sen. Tracy Pennycuick.

Whilethe Davis Cup final readies with Jannik Sinner as the main protagonist, NovakDjokovic’s announcement stole the spotlight: he’s joining forces with AndyMurray as his coach for the 2025 season. Today in our Daily Dose of Social Media ,we review the reactions sparked by this news, which comes just a few monthsafter the retirement of the British former World No. 1. Elsewhere,Djokovic recently visited PSG’s new training facility, while Alexander Zverev and Daria Kasatkina shared updates from their holidays, and Alizé Cornetreflected on her historic argument with Sara Errani 10 years ago whilecongratulating her on the Billie Jean King Cup title. Safin,Azarenka, McEnroe: Social media erupts as Murray becomesDjokovic’s coach in surprising twist Social media eruptedafter Novak Djokovic ’s announcement that he had hired Andy Murray as his coachfor the off-season and the upcoming Australian Open. Just a few months afterthe Brit’s retirement, the Serbian star hopes to reignite his Grand Slam titlechase with one of his greatest rivals now part of his team. The tennis world wasstunned, with some X (formerly Twitter) users calling it one of the mostshocking developments in tennis—or even in sports. Djokovic surprised fans byposting on Instagram that Murray would be his new coach, sharing an emotionalvideo that revisited their rivalry. The post drew comments from several tennisstars, including Alejandro Davidovich Fokina , Fabio Fognini , Marcos Baghdatis, Elena Vesnina , Tomás Martín Etcheverry, Daniela Hantuchová, and others. He never liked retirement anyway. pic.twitter.com/Ga4UlV2kQW However,they were not the only ones to react, as several other colleagues also joinedin the praise. Two-time Grand Slam champion Victoria Azarenka commented “Prettycool” on X, while Marat Safin praised: “I turned it down. ” On theother hand, figures like Alex Corretja , Brad Gilbert , Patrick McEnroe , and evenJudy Murray, Andy's mother, shared their reactions as well. Check out the restof the notable figures who praised the surprising partnership between two ofthe greatest rivals in sports history. With 36 matches (25-11 in favor ofDjokovic), their rivalry is the fifth-most played in the Open Era. I turned it down. https://t.co/QyZySmtsMR Pretty cool https://t.co/wonoAuyKQE One of the most interesting player/coach relationship of all times https://t.co/CjrrpTPoHK https://t.co/E9PNhQowpn So the ATP Tour really is a movie #djokovicxmurray good move Andy Murray to coach Novak Djokovic HELLO “Why do yousay ‘vamos’?”: Alizé Cornet laughs off memorable argument with Errani AlizéCornet sent her congratulations to Sara Errani after the Italian team won theBillie Jean King Cup title and reminisced about a memorable argument with theItalian several years ago. The former French player greeted the Spanish teamhumorously on social media, wearing a t-shirt as a reminder of the 2013 TorontoOpen dispute with Errani. During thematch, Cornet was celebrating points with the cry of "Vamos," whichgreatly annoyed Errani. Having trained in Valencia for years, Cornet speaksSpanish fluently. "Why do you say 'vamos'? Say 'allez, allez.' You neversay 'vamos,' but today you can't stop saying it?" Errani said to heropponent. The Italian's irritated reaction left Cornet stunned, and with anawkward laugh, she didn't know how to respond. The chair umpire had to step into diffuse the tension from Errani. The34-year-old Frenchwoman recently retired in 2024 after her last participationat the French Open, where she lost in the first round to the 7th seed ZhengQinwen (2-6, 1-6). However, Cornet is still keeping an eye on tennis andcongratulated the Italian team for winning the Billie Jean King Cup, a titleshe herself won in 2019 with France. I had thisidea in mind for a little while now, but after Italia's victory at the @BJKCuptwo days ago, I thought it was the right time to make myself this little gift ” Cornetposted. “Should I orderone for you @SaraErrani ?” I had this idea in mind for a little while now, but after Italia's victory at the @BJKCup two days ago, I thought it was the right time to make myself this little gift Should I order one for you @SaraErrani ? #whyyousayvamos #legend pic.twitter.com/htpPoCioa2 MadisonKeys and Bjorn Fratangelo's wedding: A celebration with tennis stars WTA starsgather to celebrate Madison Keys and Bjorn Fratangelo’s wedding this Saturday,after being in a relationship since 2017. The American tennis couple announcedin January 2023 that they would get married, and this Saturday, the couple tiedthe knot, with several well-known stars from the WTA tour in attendance. In a photoposted by Desirae Krawczyk, Keys is seen in a white dress alongside her, withher colleagues, former Australian Open runner-up Jennifer Brady , and world No.7 Jessica Pegula . In another Instagram story, doubles French Open champion Taylor Townsend is seen celebrating at the wedding, and Olympic silver medalist Laura Robson also shared pictures of her outfit for the party. I will add to this thread any photos I find from the pre-wedding/wedding. From Laura Robson’s instagram story. pic.twitter.com/wq9tLubdxm Laura Robson is ready for the wedding. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/DGjcXbhfKZ From Taylor Townsend’s instagram story. Aww they all look beautiful. ❤️ pic.twitter.com/b0e4l8uOkF Djokovictours PSG’s new training facilities The recent announcementthat Andy Murray will be Novak Djokovic's new coach grabbed attention today.However, just one day before, the 24-time Grand Slam champion made headlinesduring his visit to Paris, where he met with Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, president ofParis Saint-Germain, and toured the new PSG Campus in Poissy. It’s worth notingthat the Qatari sports executive, who was also a tennis player, represented hiscountry in 43 Davis Cup matches between 1992 and 2002 (with a 12-16 record indoubles). PSG invested nearly 300million euros in building the new headquarters and had Djokovic as one of theirspecial guests. The visit also included former club players such as Pauleta andJavier Pastore, as well as the recently retired French basketball player,Nikola Karabatic. Una publicación compartida de Paris Saint-Germain (@psg) Zverev andMelo enjoy vacation in Maldives AlexanderZverev and Marcelo Melo are enjoying their vacation on the beach. The Germandecided to skip the Davis Cup Finals after a busy season and is spending hisdays off with his regular doubles partner, Brazilian specialist Melo, in theMaldives. ‘Sascha’ ended his season just a week ago after being eliminated inthe semifinals of the ATP Finals by Taylor Fritz, closing a remarkable seasonas world No. 2 with a 69-21 record. On theother hand, Melo played his last match of the season at the Paris Masters,teaming up with his friend Zverev, who rarely joins the doubles draw. Now,they’ve teamed up for a fun game of spikeball on a sunny beach in the Maldives. Una publicación compartida de Marcelo Melo (@marcelomelo83) This article first appeared on TennisUpToDate.com and was syndicated with permission.NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks climbed Thursday after market superstar Nvidia and another round of companies said they’re making even fatter profits than expected. The S&P 500 pulled 0.5% higher after flipping between gains and losses several times during the day. Banks, smaller companies and other areas of the stock market that tend to do best when the economy is strong helped lead the way, while bitcoin briefly broke above $99,000. Crude oil, meanwhile, continued to rise. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 461 points, or 1.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged up by less than 0.1%. Nvidia rose just 0.5% after beating analysts’ estimates for profit and revenue yet again, but it was still the strongest force pulling the S&P 500 upward. It also gave a forecast for revenue in the current quarter that topped most analysts’ expectations due to voracious demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Its stock initially sank in afterhours trading Wednesday following the release of the results. Some investors said the market might have been looking for Nvidia’s revenue forecast to surpass expectations by even more. But its stock recovered in premarket trading Thursday, and Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said it was another “flawless” profit report provided by Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, whom Ives calls “the Godfather of AI.” The stock meandered through Thursday as well, dragging the S&P 500 and other indexes back and forth. How Nvidia’s stock performs has more impact than any other because it’s grown into Wall Street’s most valuable company at roughly $3.6 trillion. The frenzy around AI is sweeping up other stocks, and Snowflake jumped 32.7% after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, whose platform helps customers get a better view of all their silos of data and use AI, also reported stronger revenue growth than expected. BJ’S Wholesale Club rose 8.3% after likewise delivering a bigger profit than expected. That may help calm worries about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain, given high prices across the economy and still-high interest rates. A day earlier, Target tumbled after reporting sluggish sales in the latest quarter and giving a dour forecast for the holiday shopping season. It followed Walmart , which gave a much more encouraging outlook. Nearly 90% of the stocks in the S&P 500 ended up rising Thursday, and the gains were even bigger among smaller companies. The Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks jumped a market-leading 1.7%. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, helped keep indexes in check. It fell 4.7% after U.S. regulators asked a judge to break up the tech giant by forcing it to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser. In a 23-page document filed late Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice called for sweeping punishments that would include restrictions preventing Android from favoring its own search engine. Regulators stopped short of demanding Google sell Android but left the door open to it if the company’s oversight committee continues to see evidence of misconduct. All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.60 points to 5,948.71. The Dow jumped 461.88 to 43,870.35, and the Nasdaq composite added 6.28 to 18,972.42. In the crypto market, bitcoin eclipsed $99,000 for the first time before pulling back toward $98,000, according to CoinDesk. It’s more than doubled so far this year, and its climb has accelerated since Election Day. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to make the country “the crypto capital of the planet” and create a “strategic reserve” of bitcoin. Bitcoin got a further boost after Gary Gensler, the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, said Thursday he would step down in January . Gensler has pushed for more protections for crypto investors. Bitcoin and related investment have a notorious history of big price swings in both directions. MicroStrategy, a company that’s been raising cash expressly to buy bitcoin, saw an early Thursday gain of 14.6% for its stock quickly disappear. It finished the day with a loss of 16.2%. In the oil market, a barrel of benchmark U.S. crude rose 2% to bring its gain for the week to 4.8%. Brent crude, the international standard, climbed 1.8%. Oil has been rising amid escalations in the Russia-Ukraine war. In stock markets abroad, shares of India’s Adani Enterprises plunged 22.6% Thursday after the U.S. charged founder Gautam Adani in a federal indictment with securities fraud and conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud. The businessman and one of the world’s richest people is accused of concealing that his company’s huge solar energy project on the subcontinent was being facilitated by an alleged bribery scheme. Stock indexes elsewhere in Asia and Europe were mixed. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury inched up to 4.43% from 4.41% late Wednesday following some mixed reports on the U.S. economy. One said fewer U.S. workers applied for unemployment benefits last week in the latest signal that the job market remains solid. Another report, though, said manufacturing in the mid-Atlantic region unexpectedly shrank. Sales of previously occupied homes, meanwhile, strengthened last month by more than expected. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Yuri Kageyama contributed.188 year 。

Daily Dose of Social Media: Judy Murray, Azarenka, McEnroe and more – the reactions to the shocking Djokovic-Murray associationUnlike scores of people who scrambled for the blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to lose weight in recent years, Danielle Griffin had no trouble getting them. The 38-year-old information technology worker from New Mexico had a prescription. Her pharmacy had the drugs in stock. And her health insurance covered all but $25 to $50 of the monthly cost. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get the latest news, sports, weather and more delivered right to your inbox.

Bethlehem marks a second subdued Christmas Eve during the war in Gaza BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Bethlehem is marking another somber Christmas Eve under the shadow of war in Gaza. Manger Square lacked its usual festive lights and crowds of tourists on Tuesday. Instead, the area outside the Nativity Church was quiet. The church was built atop the spot where Jesus is believed to have been born. The war, the violence in the occupied West Bank it has spurred and the lack of festivities has deeply hurt Bethlehem's economy. The town relies heavily on Christmas tourism. The economy in the West Bank was already reeling because of restrictions placed on laborers preventing them from entering Israel during the war. Pope Francis kicks off a yearlong Jubilee that will test his stamina and Rome's patience VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has opened the great Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica. The ceremony kicks off the 2025 Holy Year. It's a celebration of the Catholic Church that is expected to draw some 32 million pilgrims to Rome. And it will test the pope’s stamina and the ability of the Eternal City to welcome them. This begins the Christmas Eve Mass. The ceremony inaugurates the once-every-25-year tradition of a Jubilee. Francis has dedicated the 2025 Jubilee to the theme of hope. Trump vows to pursue executions after Biden commutes most of federal death row FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he'll “vigorously pursue” capital punishment after President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of most people on federal death row partly to stop Trump from pushing forward their executions. Trump criticized Biden’s decision on Monday to change the sentences of 37 of the 40 condemned people to life in prison without parole. Trump said that he will direct the Department of Justice to pursue the death penalty “as soon as I am inaugurated.” Trump was vague on what specific actions he may take. 21 dead as Mozambique erupts in violence after election court ruling MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Violence that engulfed Mozambique after the country’s highest court confirmed ruling party presidential candidate Daniel Chapo as the winner of disputed Oct. 9 elections has killed at least 21 people, including two police officers. Mozambique Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda told a news conference in Maputo late Tuesday that a wave of violence and looting was sparked by the court’s announcement a day earlier. He said it was led by mostly youthful supporters of losing candidate Venancio Mondlane, who received 24% of the vote, second to Chapo, who got 65%. Prosecutors find workers in 'slavery like' conditions at Chinese car company site in Brazil RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — A task force led by Brazilian prosecutors says it has rescued 163 Chinese nationals working in “slavery-like” conditions at a construction site in northeastern Brazil, where Chinese electric vehicle company BYD is building a factory. The Labor Prosecutor’s Office released videos of the dorms where the construction workers were staying, which showed beds with no mattresses and rooms without any place for the workers to store their personal belongings. In a statement issued Monday, the prosecutor’s office said the workers had been hired in China by Jinjian Group, one of the contractors on the site, which is located in Camaçari, a city in the Salvador metropolitan region. NFL players who use platform to share their faith say it's their duty to spread their love of Jesus ALLEN PARK, Mich. (AP) — Jake Bates was standing on the turf in his hometown of Houston when asked to reflect on an unlikely journey from learning how to sell bricks to making game-winning kicks for the Detroit Lions. Bates used his platform as an NFL player to spread his love of Jesus. A month later, Bates told The Associated Press it is a duty to share his faith. The NFL is filled with players and coaches who feel the same way, such as Houston's C.J. Stroud, Atlanta's Kirk Cousins, and Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens. Stunning photos show lava erupting from Hawaii's Kilauea volcano HONOLULU (AP) — Lava is erupting from Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano for the second straight day. The eruption has stayed within Kilauea’s summit caldera inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and no homes are threatened. Molten rock began spewing out of the volcano before dawn on Monday when fissures opened in the caldera floor and shot lava high into the air. It then oozed across the caldera floor. Scientists expect activity to fluctuate in coming days. The lava paused Monday afternoon but fountains reemerged Tuesday morning. The eruption has occurred in an area that’s been closed to the public since 2007 due to hazards including crater wall instability and rockfalls. Haiti gang attack on journalists covering a hospital reopening leaves 2 dead, several wounded PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti’s online media association confirms that two reporters were killed and others wounded in a gang attack on the re-opening of Port-au-Prince’s biggest public hospital. Street gangs have taken over an estimated 85% of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, and they forced the closure of the General Hospital early this year. Authorities had pledged to reopen the facility Tuesday but as journalists gathered to cover the event, suspected gang members opened fire in a vicious Christmas eve attack. The killed journalists were identified as Markenzy Nathoux and Jimmy Jean. An unspecified number of reporters had also been wounded in the attack, which was blamed on the Viv Ansanm gang. Hurricane-force winds bear down on California, latest in stretch of extreme weather LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has been hit hard by extreme weather over the past several weeks. Atmospheric rivers, which are long stretches of wet air that can produce heavy rains, brought a record-setting rainfall before Thanksgiving. A series of atmospheric rivers are producing strong waves and storms near Santa Cruz this week. Thousands were left under evacuation warnings and orders because of a fire around Malibu. Climate change means that strong storms will be responsible for a greater share of the state's yearly precipitation and the periods between those events will be drier. Heavy travel day starts with brief grounding of all American Airlines flights WASHINGTON (AP) — American Airlines briefly grounded flights nationwide due to a technical problem just as the Christmas travel season kicked into overdrive and winter weather threatened more potential problems for those planning to fly or drive. Government regulators cleared American flights to get airborne Tuesday about an hour after the Federal Aviation Administration ordered a national ground stop, which prevented planes from taking off. American said in an email that the problem was caused by vendor technology in its flight operating system. Aviation analytics company Cirium said flights were delayed across American’s major hubs, with only 37% leaving on time. Nineteen flights were cancelled.‘KU committed to empower women socially & financially’

Woman hospitalised after car crashes through Wodonga fence in wet weatherEvans 6-10 0-0 15, Mitchell 7-10 1-2 16, Withers 6-14 1-4 17, Pinzon 6-15 6-6 22, Timberlake 3-8 3-4 9, Cramer 5-5 2-2 12, Farris 2-5 0-0 6. Totals 35-67 13-18 97. Langlais 3-6 1-4 7, C.Williams 7-12 1-1 16, Jackson 2-9 2-2 6, Nkrumah 1-7 1-1 3, Weston 7-18 9-12 24, Lorick 7-9 1-1 16, Wood 4-9 4-5 13, Ogundele 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 31-73 19-26 85. Halftime_Bryant 46-40. 3-Point Goals_Bryant 14-26 (Pinzon 4-5, Withers 4-9, Evans 3-5, Farris 2-5, Mitchell 1-2), Tennessee St. 4-19 (Lorick 1-1, C.Williams 1-2, Weston 1-5, Wood 1-5, Jackson 0-3, Nkrumah 0-3). Fouled Out_Timberlake. Rebounds_Bryant 44 (Mitchell 13), Tennessee St. 25 (Lorick 7). Assists_Bryant 18 (Timberlake 5), Tennessee St. 13 (Jackson 4). Total Fouls_Bryant 17, Tennessee St. 17. A_268 (10,928).

spxChrome/E+ via Getty Images Since September 18, 2024, the meeting of the FOMC that resulted in a 50 basis point decline in the Federal Reserve's policy rate of interest, Federal Reserve officials have overseen a reduction in its securities portfolio of almost $100.0 Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have no stock, option or similar derivative position in any of the companies mentioned, and no plans to initiate any such positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the federal government is hoping a temporary break on GST will address a 'vibecession' that has gripped Canadians. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced on Thursday that starting Dec. 14 the goods and services tax will be taken off a slew of items for two months to help with the affordability crunch. Freeland says there's a disconnect between recent good news on inflation and interest rates and how Canadians are feeling about the economy, something she said is being referred to as a "vibecession." She says the tax cut is meant to help bridge that gap and stimulate consumer spending. The federal government also plans to send $250 cheques in the spring to Canadians who were working in 2023 and earned up to $150,000. The two measures are estimated to cost the federal government $6.3 billion. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024. MORE POLITICS NEWS Freeland says the two-month GST holiday is meant to tackle the 'vibecession' CEOs demand changes to Liberals' military spending plan Justin Trudeau defends spending record on military amid fresh criticism Montreal police chief expects additional arrests following anti-NATO protest Canada 'already past due' on NATO defence spending target: U.S. House intelligence committee chair Mike Turner Minister calls GST holiday, $250 cheques for 18 million Canadians 'a targeted approach' Afraid of losing the U.S.-Canada trade pact, Mexico alters its laws and removes Chinese parts Prime Minister Trudeau attends Taylor Swift's Eras Tour in Toronto with family IN DEPTH Jagmeet Singh pulls NDP out of deal with Trudeau Liberals, takes aim at Poilievre Conservatives NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has pulled his party out of the supply-and-confidence agreement that had been helping keep Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's minority Liberals in power. 'Not the result we wanted': Trudeau responds after surprise Conservative byelection win in Liberal stronghold Conservative candidate Don Stewart winning the closely-watched Toronto-St. Paul's federal byelection, and delivering a stunning upset to Justin Trudeau's candidate Leslie Church in the long-time Liberal riding, has sent political shockwaves through both parties. 'We will go with the majority': Liberals slammed by opposition over proposal to delay next election The federal Liberal government learned Friday it might have to retreat on a proposal within its electoral reform legislation to delay the next vote by one week, after all opposition parties came out to say they can't support it. Budget 2024 prioritizes housing while taxing highest earners, deficit projected at $39.8B In an effort to level the playing field for young people, in the 2024 federal budget, the government is targeting Canada's highest earners with new taxes in order to help offset billions in new spending to enhance the country's housing supply and social supports. 'One of the greatest': Former prime minister Brian Mulroney commemorated at state funeral Prominent Canadians, political leaders, and family members remembered former prime minister and Progressive Conservative titan Brian Mulroney as an ambitious and compassionate nation-builder at his state funeral on Saturday. Opinion opinion | Don Martin: Gusher of Liberal spending won't put out the fire in this dumpster A Hail Mary rehash of the greatest hits from the Trudeau government’s three-week travelling pony-show, the 2024 federal budget takes aim at reversing the party’s popularity plunge in the under-40 set, writes political columnist Don Martin. But will it work before the next election? opinion | Don Martin: The doctor Trudeau dumped has a prescription for better health care Political columnist Don Martin sat down with former federal health minister Jane Philpott, who's on a crusade to help fix Canada's broken health care system, and who declined to take any shots at the prime minister who dumped her from caucus. opinion | Don Martin: Trudeau's seeking shelter from the housing storm he helped create While Justin Trudeau's recent housing announcements are generally drawing praise from experts, political columnist Don Martin argues there shouldn’t be any standing ovations for a prime minister who helped caused the problem in the first place. opinion | Don Martin: Poilievre has the field to himself as he races across the country to big crowds It came to pass on Thursday evening that the confidentially predictable failure of the Official Opposition non-confidence motion went down with 204 Liberal, BQ and NDP nays to 116 Conservative yeas. But forcing Canada into a federal election campaign was never the point. opinion | Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing. CTVNews.ca Top Stories 'It's just not fair': Retirees speak out on being excluded from federal rebate cheques Carol Sheaves of Moncton, N.B., says it's not fair that retirees like her won't get the government's newly proposed rebate cheques. Sheaves was among the seniors who expressed their frustrations to CTVNews.ca about not being eligible for the $250 government benefit. Montreal mayor says Friday pro-Palestinian protests were taken over by 'professional vandals' Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told journalists 'professional vandals' took over protests and smashed windows at the Palais des Congres. Warren Buffett gives away another US$1.1B, announces plans for distributing $147B fortune after death Investor Warren Buffett renewed his Thanksgiving tradition of giving by announcing plans Monday to hand more than US$1.1 billion of Berkshire Hathaway stock to four of his family's foundations, and he offered new details about who will be handing out the rest of his fortune after his death. Canada Post says progress 'limited' at negotiating table as strike continues Canada Post says they have made 'limited progress' with the union at the negotiating table 11 days after the strike began. BREAKING | Judge delays resentencing hearing for Menendez brothers A judge has delayed a scheduled resentencing hearing for Lyle and Erik Menendez. Canadian Army corporal fined for stolen valour at Remembrance Day ceremony A corporal in the Canadian Army has been fined $2,000 and given a severe reprimand for wearing service medals he didn't earn during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Alberta two years ago. Justin Trudeau defends spending record on military amid fresh criticism Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government's record on supporting national defence, following fresh criticism that Canada is failing to live up to its NATO defence-spending commitments. CEOs demand changes to Liberals' military spending plan The federal government risks jeopardizing the economy unless it meets its NATO military alliance spending obligations within the next five years, says the Business Council of Canada. U.S. driver makes wrong turn to Canadian border, gets arrested for unlawfully possessing a gun A 62-year-old man from the U.S., who took a wrong turn to the Canadian border thanks to his GPS device, is now facing a firearms-related charge. Canada Montreal mayor says Friday pro-Palestinian protests were taken over by 'professional vandals' Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told journalists 'professional vandals' took over protests and smashed windows at the Palais des Congres. Toronto mother now facing murder charge in death of four-month old baby Toronto police say they have charged a mother with second-degree murder following the death of her infant, who was found with critical injuries in midtown Toronto last week. Canadian Army corporal fined for stolen valour at Remembrance Day ceremony A corporal in the Canadian Army has been fined $2,000 and given a severe reprimand for wearing service medals he didn't earn during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Alberta two years ago. U.S. driver makes wrong turn to Canadian border, gets arrested for unlawfully possessing a gun A 62-year-old man from the U.S., who took a wrong turn to the Canadian border thanks to his GPS device, is now facing a firearms-related charge. 'It's just not fair': Retirees speak out on being excluded from federal rebate cheques Carol Sheaves of Moncton, N.B., says it's not fair that retirees like her won't get the government's newly proposed rebate cheques. Sheaves was among the seniors who expressed their frustrations to CTVNews.ca about not being eligible for the $250 government benefit. Canada Post says progress 'limited' at negotiating table as strike continues Canada Post says they have made 'limited progress' with the union at the negotiating table 11 days after the strike began. World Special counsel Jack Smith drops election subversion and classified documents cases against Donald Trump Special counsel Jack Smith is dropping the federal election subversion and the mishandling of classified documents cases against U.S. president-elect Donald Trump, seeking the cases’ dismissal in court filings Monday. Israel launches new airstrikes on Lebanon as leaders draw closer to ceasefire with Hezbollah Israel launched airstrikes across Lebanon on Monday, killing at least 12, while Israeli leaders negotiate ceasefire deal with the Hezbollah militant group. Police fire tear gas as thousands supporting former prime minister Khan arrive near capital Pakistani police Monday fired tear gas canisters at supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan to stop them from entering the capital, where they hoped to stage a sit-in to demand his release, officials said. Bah, humbug! Vandal smashes Ebenezer Scrooge's tombstone used in 'A Christmas Carol' movie If life imitates art, a vandal may be haunted by The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come for smashing a tombstone that marked the fictional grave of Ebenezer Scrooge in the English countryside. DHL cargo plane crashes and skids into a house in Lithuania, killing Spanish crew member A DHL cargo plane crashed on approach to an airport in Lithuania's capital and skidded into a house Monday morning, killing a Spanish crew member but not harming anyone on the ground. The cause is under investigation. Father of missing Hawaii woman Hannah Kobayashi found dead in Los Angeles, police say The father of a Hawaii woman who went missing two weeks ago was found dead on Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said. Politics Freeland says the two-month GST holiday is meant to tackle the 'vibecession' Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the federal government is hoping a temporary break on GST will address a 'vibecession' that has gripped Canadians. CEOs demand changes to Liberals' military spending plan The federal government risks jeopardizing the economy unless it meets its NATO military alliance spending obligations within the next five years, says the Business Council of Canada. Justin Trudeau defends spending record on military amid fresh criticism Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is defending his government's record on supporting national defence, following fresh criticism that Canada is failing to live up to its NATO defence-spending commitments. Health How menopause awareness among employers, patients is changing the workplace Canadians might have noticed menopause is increasingly a topic of conversation outside of health circles, gaining profile in entertainment and popular culture Dozens of people in Canada have scurvy, and it's because of food A disease often thought to only affect 18th century sailors is reemerging in Canada. Ontario missed interim target for providing hands-on care to long-term care residents Ontario failed to meet its own legislated target this past year for the average number of hands-on hours of care that long-term care residents receive, a newly updated document shows. Sci-Tech EU says Bluesky is violating information disclosure rules Bluesky, the rapidly growing social media platform, is violating EU regulations by failing to disclose important details, a European Commission spokesperson told reporters during a daily briefing on Monday. Social media sites call for Australia to delay its ban on children younger than 16 An advocate for major social media platforms told an Australian Senate committee Monday that laws to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed until next year at least instead of being rushed through the Parliament this week. Canadian neurosurgeons seek six patients for Musk's Neuralink brain study Canadian neurosurgeons in partnership with Elon Musk's Neuralink have regulatory approval to recruit six patients with paralysis willing to have a thousand electrode contacts in their brains. Entertainment Drake's Australian tour to begin same date as rival Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl show Drake is taking his musical stylings Down Under with a short Australian tour set to kick off on the same date as rival Kendrick Lamar's Super Bowl halftime performance. Pop star Ed Sheeran apologizes to Man United boss Ruben Amorim for crashing interview British pop star Ed Sheeran has apologized to Ruben Amorim after inadvertently interrupting the new Manchester United head coach during a live television interview. Zayn Malik returns to the stage with tribute to Liam Payne Zayn Malik played his first concert since the death fellow One Direction member Liam Payne and it was emotional. Business Couple accused of stealing nearly US$1 million from Lululemon in elaborate shoplifting plot A Connecticut couple is accused of running an elaborate theft ring at Lululemon stores in multiple states, stealing nearly a million dollars from the company. Judge in Alex Jones' bankruptcy case to hear arguments on The Onion's bid for Infowars A bankruptcy judge is set to hear arguments Monday in conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' effort to stop the satirical news outlet The Onion from buying Infowars and turning it into a parody. Freeland says the two-month GST holiday is meant to tackle the 'vibecession' Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the federal government is hoping a temporary break on GST will address a 'vibecession' that has gripped Canadians. Lifestyle 'Like climbing Mount Everest:' Inside the gruelling world of the Chess World Championship The Chess World Championship begins in Singapore on Monday with China's Ding Liren seeking to defend his title against India's Gukesh Dommaraju, better known as Gukesh D, who is still just 18 years old and could become the youngest ever person to be crowned world champion. School bullies have moved online. But is banning all under-16s from social media really the answer? The Australian government introduced what it's called 'world-leading' legislation in parliament this week to wipe social media accounts – including Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and X – from the devices of children under 16. Ants marching into spotlight as hobby of ant-keeping rises in popularity They are tiny insects that are often overlooked or stepped on, but ants are marching not only into people’s backyards, but also their homes, as the popularity of ant-keeping rises in Canada. Sports NBA legend Charles Barkley criticizes LA Lakers over handling of Bronny James NBA legend Charles Barkley has criticized the Los Angeles Lakers over their handling of Bronny James this season. 'Embarrassing:' NHL team ditches bus and walks to Scotiabank Arena amid gridlock The Utah Hockey Club got the full Toronto experience Sunday night ahead of their first-ever matchup against the Maple Leafs—bumper-to-bumper traffic that forced the team to walk to the game. Vancouver Whitecaps drop head coach Vanni Sartini Two weeks after the Vancouver Whitecaps’ playoff run ended in the first round, the team has fired head coach Vanni Sartini. Autos Nearly 46,000 electric vehicles recalled in Canada over power loss risk Nearly 46,000 electric vehicles from Kia, Hyundai and Genesis are being recalled in Canada over a potential power loss issue that can increase the risk of a crash. Northvolt says Quebec battery plant will proceed despite bankruptcy filing Northvolt AB has filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States, but said the move will not jeopardize the manufacturer's planned electric vehicle battery plant in Quebec — though hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars invested in the parent company could be lost. Canadian drivers own their poor road habits: survey Canadian drivers are regularly in a hurry to get to their destination and a majority are willing to take unnecessary risks on the road, according to the results of a new survey. Local Spotlight 'I had no idea that they even existed': Family reunites with 80-year-old letters hidden in Winnipeg home The family of a soldier who fought during the Second World War has been reunited with letters written to him 80 years ago. The Thriftmas Special: The benefits of second-hand holiday shopping The holidays may be a time for family, joy and togetherness, but they can also be hard on the wallet. Video shows octopus 'hanging on for dear life' during bomb cyclone off B.C. coast Humans weren’t the only ones who struggled through the bomb cyclone that formed off the B.C. coast this week, bringing intense winds and choppy seas. B.C. man reunites with Nova Scotia stranger, 56 years after being saved from drowning After driving near the water that winter day, Brian Lavery thought he saw a dog splashing in the waves – then realized it was way too cold for that. 'It's nice to just talk to people': Toronto podcaster prank calling Nova Scotians Toronto radio and podcast host Jax Irwin has recently gone viral for videos of her cute -- and at times confusing -- phone conversations. Lotto Max jackpot hits $80M for second time ever The Lotto Max jackpot has climbed to $80 million for just the second time in Canadian lottery history. 'I'm just tickled pink': Childhood friends from New Brunswick named Rhodes Scholars Two young women from New Brunswick have won one of the most prestigious and sought-after academic honours in the world. B.C. man to cycle length of New Zealand to raise funds for Movember Stretching 3,000 kilometres from the tip of New Zealand to its southernmost point, with just a bicycle for transport and a tent to call home, bikepacking event Tour Aotearoa is not for the faint of heart. 'She's a people person': Urban chicken inspires positivity in B.C. neighbourhood When he first moved to his urban neighbourhood, Barry Devonald was surprised to be welcomed by a whole flock of new neighbours. Vancouver Canadian border agents seize 246 kilos of cocaine in B.C. Canadian border officials in British Columbia have seized nearly a quarter-tonne of cocaine that was coming into the province in three separate smuggling incidents in recent weeks, according to the agency. Canadian Army corporal fined for stolen valour at Remembrance Day ceremony A corporal in the Canadian Army has been fined $2,000 and given a severe reprimand for wearing service medals he didn't earn during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Alberta two years ago. Vancouver Whitecaps drop head coach Vanni Sartini Two weeks after the Vancouver Whitecaps’ playoff run ended in the first round, the team has fired head coach Vanni Sartini. Toronto Doug Ford government passes bill to limit bike lanes Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has passed a controversial law that will force municipalities to seek approval for installing new bike lanes on arterial roads and could see some existing bike lanes torn up. Toronto mother now facing murder charge in death of four-month old baby Toronto police say they have charged a mother with second-degree murder following the death of her infant, who was found with critical injuries in midtown Toronto last week. 'Embarrassing:' NHL team ditches bus and walks to Scotiabank Arena amid gridlock The Utah Hockey Club got the full Toronto experience Sunday night ahead of their first-ever matchup against the Maple Leafs—bumper-to-bumper traffic that forced the team to walk to the game. Calgary Alberta seeks to 'de-risk' oil, gas pipeline investments in wake of Trump victory Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her government is looking for ways to encourage pipeline companies to boost capacity and increase Alberta's oil and gas export volumes to the U.S. $3.69M Calgary mansion with basketball court for sale in Aspen Woods If you've ever dreamed of having a home with a basketball court, now's your chance. 'We need an industry': Crowsnest Pass residents voting on support for new coal mine It's been more than 40 years since coal was king in the scenic Crowsnest Pass of southwestern Alberta, but a referendum vote Monday could sway a contentious debate on bringing it back. Ottawa FREEZING RAIN WARNING | 1 to 3 mm of freezing rain possible in Ottawa-Gatineau tonight Environment Canada has issued a freezing rain warning for Ottawa as a low-pressure system moves across eastern Ontario on Monday. OC Transpo well below punctuality targets on 'less frequent' routes OC Transpo is well below its punctuality targets for less frequent bus routes, data presented to the city's Transit Commission show. Cargo ship runs aground in St. Lawrence River near Morrisburg, Ont. A large cargo ship remains stuck in the St. Lawrence River after running aground on Saturday afternoon. Montreal Montreal mayor says Friday pro-Palestinian protests were taken over by 'professional vandals' Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante told journalists 'professional vandals' took over protests and smashed windows at the Palais des Congres. Teen girls engage in more risky behaviour than boys: Quebec study Fewer young people in Quebec secondary schools are drinking alcohol, consuming sugary drinks and eating junk food, but not all their habits are improving. More of them are also inactive, taking action to change their weight and not eating breakfast before going to school, according to a recent study. More people hurt in Quebec road accidents after fall time change, data shows New data from Quebec's auto insurance board shows that evening road accidents -- including those involving pedestrians -- rise sharply in the 30 days following the fall time change, when the sun sets earlier. Edmonton LIVE @ 2 P.M. | Edmonton police to provide update on investigation into arsons The Edmonton Police Service will hold a news conference on Monday afternoon to provide an update on its investigations into potential arsons in southeast and southwest Edmonton. Death of worker in Edmonton smokehouse leads to 26 charges against food processing company An Ontario-based food processing company is facing 26 charges under Alberta Occupational Health and Safety legislation in connection with the death of a worker at an Edmonton facility in 2023. The story of Alberta's rural long COVID program that never was As better diagnosis and symptom management emerged for people with long COVID, researchers in Alberta set to work creating a program that could remotely connect urban specialists and rural patients. Between development and clinical implementation, the project was shelved. Atlantic 'It's just not fair': Retirees speak out on being excluded from federal rebate cheques Carol Sheaves of Moncton, N.B., says it's not fair that retirees like her won't get the government's newly proposed rebate cheques. Sheaves was among the seniors who expressed their frustrations to CTVNews.ca about not being eligible for the $250 government benefit. Man charged with unsafe storage of a firearm in Tyson MacDonald homicide: RCMP A 61-year-old man is facing unsafe storage charges in connection with the homicide of 17-year-old Tyson MacDonald on P.E.I., last December. From cellphones to dentures: Inside Halifax Transit’s lost and found Every single item misplaced on a bus or ferry in the Halifax Regional Municipality ends up in a small office at the Halifax Transit Bridge Terminal in Dartmouth, N.S. Winnipeg Winnipeg police shoot, kill suspect after officer stabbed in the throat Manitoba’s police watchdog is investigating a deadly police shooting at Winnipeg's Unicity Shopping Centre Sunday evening. Mounties looking for missing car in connection with suspicious death Manitoba RCMP are looking for a missing car connected to an investigation into human remains discovered north of Winnipeg. $4.2M from feds to create Indigenous-led family care centre in Winnipeg A new Indigenous-led family care centre will be coming to Winnipeg, with more than $4.2 million for the project coming from the federal government. Regina Sask. Party prioritizes affordability, civility with opposition in Throne Speech The Saskatchewan Party government said it will prioritize affordability in the coming months during its Throne Speech on Monday, that officially kicked off a short two-week sitting inside the legislature. Regina commits to clearing all 'high priority roads' of snow by Tuesday morning Following a second significant dump of snow in less than a week, the City of Regina says it plans to have all high priority roadways cleared by 7:00 a.m. Tuesday. Canada Post says progress 'limited' at negotiating table as strike continues Canada Post says they have made 'limited progress' with the union at the negotiating table 11 days after the strike began. Kitchener Waterloo reviews most collision-prone areas to improve safety The City of Waterloo is trying to make its roads safer by putting together a report on some of the locations with the most crashes in the past five years. Driver warned after police receive complaints about car decked out in Christmas lights in Waterloo Drivers are being reminded not to take the holiday spirit too far after police received complaints about a distracting vehicle in Waterloo. Kitchener, Ont. doctor officially claims second Guinness World Record A Kitchener, Ont. emergency room doctor has officially earned his second Guinness World Records title. Saskatoon Sask. Party prioritizes affordability, civility with opposition in Throne Speech The Saskatchewan Party government said it will prioritize affordability in the coming months during its Throne Speech on Monday, that officially kicked off a short two-week sitting inside the legislature. Saskatoon's second big snowfall in a week won't trigger emergency response: City City crews and contractors are at it again — clearing roadways after another major snowfall. Two dead after crash on Saskatchewan Highway 4 Two people are dead following a two-vehicle crash on Highway 4 Friday evening. Northern Ontario Elliot Lake, Ont., woman charged with choking neighbour's dog An intoxicated woman in Elliot Lake has been charged with breaking into her neighbour's apartment and choking their dog. Winter weather advisory in effect for most of northeastern Ont. Environment Canada has issued a winter weather advisory for areas in and around Greater Sudbury, North Bay, Sault Ste. Marie and Timmins. Drug bust after a suspect pointed handgun at victim at northern Ont. gas station Three people have been charged with numerous drug and weapons offences following an incident at a gas station in Bruce Mines, Ont., on Nov. 21. London 'I just knew something was up': London family recounts rushing to their burning home where pet perished A weekend house fire has left a family displaced and taken the life of a beloved pet. The blaze at 454 Alston Road broke out shortly after 12:30 p.m. Christmas tax break will be 'challenging' for small businesses, says gift shop owner Tom Fincher is all for a tax break for consumers but implementing the GST tax break announced by the federal government last week at his till will be easier said than done. Three of five former junior hockey players in attendance for court proceedings Three of the five players from Canada's 2018 world junior hockey team, charged as part of a 2018 sexual assault investigation, appeared in a London court room on Monday. Barrie 'James deceived us,' Slain Collingwood, Ont. woman's family speak ahead of husband's sentencing James Schwalm sat in the prisoner’s box Monday morning weeping as friends and family members told the court about the devastation he caused when he murdered his wife, Ashley Milne, two years ago inside their Collingwood, Ont. home. Novice driver charged with speeding 95km/h over limit on Hwy 11 accused of being impaired A Thornhill resident accused of driving at a high rate of speed along Highway 11 in Muskoka while impaired faces charges. 2 women hospitalized after being struck by vehicle, police seek witnesses Police are investigating a collision in Newmarket that sent two women to the hospital over the weekend. Windsor 'Active investigation' underway in Windsor Windsor police are on the scene of what's being called an, "active investigation." "Expect a sustained police presence in the area," read a post on social media. Alleged impaired mom found asleep at the wheel with two kids in the backseat Windsor police arrested two motorists for impaired driving in separate incidents over the weekend, including a mom with two small children in the backseat. Unknown man allegedly commits indecent act outside McKay Avenue home Windsor police are asking for the public’s help identifying a suspect who allegedly committed an indecent act outside a McKay Avenue home. Vancouver Island Canadian Army corporal fined for stolen valour at Remembrance Day ceremony A corporal in the Canadian Army has been fined $2,000 and given a severe reprimand for wearing service medals he didn't earn during a Remembrance Day ceremony in Alberta two years ago. Vancouver Whitecaps drop head coach Vanni Sartini Two weeks after the Vancouver Whitecaps’ playoff run ended in the first round, the team has fired head coach Vanni Sartini. Canadian border agents seize 246 kilos of cocaine in B.C. Canadian border officials in British Columbia have seized nearly a quarter-tonne of cocaine that was coming into the province in three separate smuggling incidents in recent weeks, according to the agency. Kelowna Man in hospital following targeted shooting in Kamloops Police are appealing for information on a targeted shooting that resulted in the hospitalization of a man in Kamloops. Police cleared of fault in fatal 2023 crash in B.C.'s Interior British Columbia's independent police watchdog has cleared officers of wrongdoing in a crash where three people were killed south of Kamloops in July of last year. B.C. woman sentenced for stealing $14K in funds raised for schoolkids A B.C. woman who stole more than $14,000 in volunteer-raised funds that were supposed to be spent on school supplies and programs – including hot meals for vulnerable kids – won't spend any time in jail. Lethbridge 'We need an industry': Crowsnest Pass residents voting on support for new coal mine It's been more than 40 years since coal was king in the scenic Crowsnest Pass of southwestern Alberta, but a referendum vote Monday could sway a contentious debate on bringing it back. Snow routes declared active for Lethbridge starting at 9 a.m. Monday Snow routes were declared active in Lethbridge, the city posted on its website. Starting at 9 a.m. Monday, parking restrictions will be in effect for streets declared to be snow routes. Hurricanes road misery continues with 6-3 loss to Winterhawks in Portland The Hurricanes dropped their third straight game on Friday night, losing 6-3 to the Winterhawks in Portland. Sault Ste. Marie Sault suspect charged with punching rideshare driver in the face twice A 24-year-old in Sault Ste. Marie has been charged with attacking a rideshare driver and a police officer. Drug bust after a suspect pointed handgun at victim at northern Ont. gas station Three people have been charged with numerous drug and weapons offences following an incident at a gas station in Bruce Mines, Ont., on Nov. 21. Elliot Lake, Ont., woman charged with choking neighbour's dog An intoxicated woman in Elliot Lake has been charged with breaking into her neighbour's apartment and choking their dog. N.L. As N.L. firm pivots, scientists say Canada's green hydrogen dreams are far-fetched A Newfoundland energy company's embrace of data centres is raising doubts about eastern Canadian hopes of harnessing the region's howling winds to supply Germany with power from green hydrogen. Canadian leads group pushing Vatican for zero-tolerance policy on abuse by clergy An international group led by a Canadian is in Rome this week to push the Catholic Church to adopt a zero-tolerance policy on abuse by clergy. Newfoundland wind-to-hydrogen company eyes data centre as international market lags A company hoping to build a multi-billion-dollar wind-to-hydrogen project in western Newfoundland is eyeing other options as Canada's plans to supply Europe with green energy have not yet materialized. Stay ConnectedNone

Liam Payne's former partner Kate Cassidy shares heartfelt post about grief at ChristmasWarren Buffett shares his thoughts on wealth as he donates another $1 billionBuster Olney slams Dodgers for dancing on Yankees’ grave after World SeriesTurning trash to cash

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump said he can't guarantee his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won't raise prices for American consumers and suggested once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect, in a wide-ranging interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning "things do change." Here's a look at some of the issues covered: Trump threatened broad trade penalties, but said he didn't believe economists' predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher domestic prices for consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that U.S. an households won't be paying more as they shop. "I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow," Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market. That's a different approach from Trump's typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign, when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation. In the interview, Trump defended tariffs generally, saying that tariffs are "going to make us rich." He has pledged that, on his first day in office in January, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. He also has threatened tariffs on China to help force that country to crack down on fentanyl production. "All I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field," Trump said. He offered conflicting statements on how he would approach the justice system after winning election despite being convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and being indicted in other cases for his handling of national security secrets and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. "Honestly, they should go to jail," Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power. The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump's role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office. As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: "I have the absolute right. I'm the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I'm the president. But I'm not interested in that." At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. "Cheney was behind it ... so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee," Trump said. Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, "No," and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies. At another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. "I want her to do what she wants to do," he said. Such threats, regardless of Trump's inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration. Trump did seemingly back off his campaign rhetoric calling for Biden to be investigated, saying, "I'm not looking to go back into the past." Immigration advocates hold a rally in Sacramento, Calif. on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024, to protest President-Elect Donald Trump's plans to conduct mass deportation of immigrants without legal status. (AP Photo/Haven Daley) Trump repeatedly mentioned his promises to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally through a mass deportation program. "I think you have to do it," he said. He suggested he would try to use executive action to end "birthright" citizenship under which people born in the U.S. are considered citizens — though such protections are spelled out in the Constitution. Asked specifically about the future for people who were brought into the country illegally as children and were shielded from deportation in recent years, Trump said, "I want to work something out," indicating he might seek a solution with Congress. But Trump also said he does not "want to be breaking up families" of mixed legal status, "so the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back." President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Notre Dame Cathedral as France's iconic cathedral is formally reopening its doors for the first time since a devastating fire nearly destroyed the 861-year-old landmark in 2019, Saturday Dec.7, 2024 in Paris ( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP) Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their own defense, Trump said he "absolutely" would remain in the alliance "if they pay their bills." Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he were dissatisfied with allies' commitments, Trump said he wants the U.S. treated "fairly" on trade and defense. He waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Trump suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defense against Putin's invasion. "Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure," Trump said of reducing Ukraine assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump called for an immediate cease-fire. Asked about Putin, Trump said initially that he has not talked to the Russian leader since Election Day last month, but then hedged. "I haven't spoken to him recently," Trump said when pressed, adding that he did not want to "impede the negotiation." Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) The president-elect said he has no intention, at least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before Powell's term ends in 2028. Trump said during the campaign that presidents should have more say in Fed policy, including interest rates. Trump did not offer any job assurances for FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term is to end in 2027. Asked about Wray, Trump said: "Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious" that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump's pick for FBI chief, then "he's going to be taking somebody's place, right? Somebody is the man that you're talking about." Trump promised that the government efficiency effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will not threaten Social Security. "We're not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient," he said. He added that "we're not raising ages or any of that stuff." He was not so specific about abortion or his long-promised overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. On abortion, Trump continued his inconsistencies and said he would "probably" not move to restrict access to the abortion pills that now account for a majority of pregnancy terminations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But pressed on whether he would commit to that position, Trump replied, "Well, I commit. I mean, are — things do — things change. I think they change." Reprising a line from his Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again said he had "concepts" of a plan to substitute for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called "lousy health care." He added a promise that any Trump version would maintain insurance protections for Americans with preexisting health conditions. He did not explain how such a design would be different from the status quo or how he could deliver on his desire for "better health care for less money." Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.” Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

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The Fine Gael leader was asked about the controversy in the first question posed during the second and final TV leaders’ debate of Ireland’s General Election campaign. Mr Harris apologised over the weekend for his handling of the discussion with Charlotte Fallon while canvassing in Kanturk in Co Cork on Friday evening. The Taoiseach was accused of dismissing concerns that Ms Fallon raised about Government support for the disability sector during the exchange filmed by RTE in a supermarket. Mr Harris rang Ms Fallon on Saturday and said he unreservedly apologised for the way he treated her, however focus has since shifted to Fine Gael’s interactions with the national broadcaster about the social media video. At the outset of Tuesday’s TV debate, co-host Miriam O’Callaghan directly asked the Fine Gael leader whether a member of his party contacted RTE to ask for the clip to be taken down. “I have no knowledge of that whatsoever, because this clip was entirely appropriate,” said Mr Harris. “It was a very important moment on the campaign. “And RTE and indeed many media outlets have been with me throughout the campaign, covering many interactions that I’ve had with many, many people right across this country.” The Taoiseach said the approach by his team member was part of the “normal contact that happens between party politics and broadcasters on a daily basis”. Mr Harris’s partner-in-government in the last coalition, Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin, said he was not aware of the approach to RTE by Fine Gael. “I didn’t realise this had happened,” he said. “I think Simon has given his explanation to it. I’m not sure it’s as normal or as usual. I just get on with it every day. But, again, I think, you know, I’m not au fait with the details behind all of this, or the background to it. “The video didn’t come down, and it was seen by many, many people. “And I think it illustrates that out there, there are a lot of people suffering in our society. “Notwithstanding the progress we’ve made as a country, a lot of people are facing a lot of individual challenges, and our job as public representatives and as leaders in travelling the country is to listen to people, hear their cases, to understand the challenges that they are going through in their lives. “And when we go about in election campaigns, we have to open up ourselves to criticism and to people calling us to account.” Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald had earlier in the day described reports of the Fine Gael approach to RTE as “chilling”. However, at the start of the debate, she was asked about a media-focused issue related to her own party, namely the controversial manifesto proposal for an independent expert review of RTE’s objectivity in its coverage of the war in Gaza and other international conflicts. Mr Harris previously branded the proposal a “dog whistle to conspiracy theorists” while Mr Martin said it was a “dangerous departure”. Ms McDonald defended the idea during the RTE Prime Time debate on Tuesday. “Politics and politicians should not try to influence editorial decisions or try and have clips taken down because they are inconvenient to them,” she said. “There has to be distance, there has to be objectivity. But I would say I am struck by the very defensive reaction from some to this (the review proposal). “The BBC, for example, a peer review looked at their coverage on migration. Politicians didn’t put their hands on it, and rightly so. “I think in a world where we have to rely on quality information, especially from the national broadcaster, which is in receipt of very substantial public funding, that has to be the gold standard of reliability. I think peer reviews like that are healthy.”NoneJapan will hold first memorial for 'all workers' at Sado gold mines but blurs WWII atrocity. Why?

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SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- eGain (Nasdaq: EGAN), the AI Knowledge Management platform for business, announced today that its Board of Directors approved an extension to the stock repurchase program from November 14, 2024, until the earlier of (i) the date the aggregate amount of shares that can be repurchased under the stock repurchase program have been repurchased and (ii) November 14, 2025. "This extension underscores our belief that our shares are undervalued and reinforces our confidence in the significant growth potential of the AI knowledge market. With our strong balance sheet, we believe we are well-positioned to expand our market presence in knowledge management while delivering value to shareholders through our ongoing buyback program," said Ashu Roy, eGain's CEO. As of November 15, 2024, eGain has repurchased approximately $27.6 million of shares of its common stock under its stock repurchase program, leaving approximately $12.4 million of shares of its common stock available for repurchase after the increase. Under the stock repurchase program, eGain may purchase shares of common stock on a discretionary basis from time to time through open market transactions or privately negotiated transactions at prices deemed appropriate by eGain. In addition, at the discretion of eGain, open market repurchase of common stock may also be made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which would permit common stock to be repurchased when eGain might otherwise be precluded from doing so under insider trading laws or self-imposed trading restrictions. The timing and number of shares repurchased will be determined based on an evaluation of market conditions and other factors, including stock price, trading volume, general business and market conditions, and capital availability. The stock repurchase program does not obligate eGain to acquire a specified number of shares and may be modified, suspended, or discontinued at any time at eGain's discretion without notice. The stock repurchase program will be funded using existing cash or future cash flows. About eGain eGain AI Knowledge Hub helps businesses improve experience and reduce cost by delivering trusted, consumable answers. Visit www.egain.com for more info. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including without limitation: statements regarding the timing, scope, and funding of our stock repurchase program; our belief that our shares are undervalued; our belief that we are well-positioned to expand our market presence; our focus, growth potential and market opportunity; and the expected benefits of our products. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves risks, uncertainties, and assumptions, many of which involve factors or circumstances that are beyond our control. If any such risks or uncertainties materialize or if any of the assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results could differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. The risks and uncertainties referred to above include, but are not limited to: risks to our business, operating results, and financial condition; the pace of technological advancements in generative AI and the adaptability of our services to incorporate these advancements; market demand for AI-enabled solutions; risks associated with new product releases and new services and products features; risks that customer demand may fluctuate or decrease; risks that we are unable to collect unbilled contractual commitments, particularly in the current economic environment; risks that our lengthy sales cycles may negatively affect our operating results; currency risks; our ability to capitalize on customer engagement; risks related to our reliance on a relatively small number of customers for a substantial portion of our revenue; our ability to compete successfully and manage growth; our ability to develop and expand strategic and third party distribution channels; risks related to our international operations; our ability to continue to innovate; our strategy of making investments in sales to drive growth; general political or destabilizing events, including war, intensified international hostilities, conflict or acts of terrorism; the effect of legislative initiatives or proposals, statutory changes, governmental or other applicable regulations and/or changes in industry requirements, including those addressing data privacy, cyber-security and cross-border data transfers; and other risks detailed from time to time in eGain's public filings, including eGain's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2024, quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2024, and subsequent reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which are available on the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and speak only as of the date hereof. We assume no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements, except as required by law. eGain, the eGain logo, and all other eGain product names and slogans are trademarks or registered trademarks of eGain Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. All other company names and products mentioned in this release may be trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies. MKR Investor Relations Todd Kehrli or Jim Byers Phone: 323-468-2300 Email: [email protected]

Oncocyte Demonstrates Potential for Liquid Biopsy of Brain Tumors in New StudyThe 39-year-old has been a breath of fresh air since succeeding Erik ten Hag, with his personality and approach, coupled with promising early performances, bringing hope back to Old Trafford. Amorim has been touched by his warm welcome but repeatedly urged fans to avoid jumping the gun, having followed a draw at Ipswich with home wins against Bodo/Glimt and Everton. Wednesday’s trip to Arsenal is comfortably his biggest challenge yet and victory would see United move within three points of the Premier League title contenders. Put to Amorim it will be hard to manage expectations if they won in the capital, the head coach said: “I would like to say different things, but I have to say it again: the storm will come. “I don’t know if you use that expression, but we are going to have difficult moments and we will be found out in some games. “And I know that because I’m knowing my players and I know football and I follow football, so I understand the difference between the teams. “We are in the point in that we are putting simple things in the team, without training, and you feel it in this game against Everton, they change a little bit the way they were building up. “They are very good team, and we were with a lot of problems because we cannot change it by calling one thing to the captain. A midweek trip to the capital awaits 🚆 || — Manchester United (@ManUtd) “So, we don’t have this training, so let’s focus on each game, on the performance, what we have to improve, trying to win games. And that is the focus. “I know it’s really hard to be a Manchester United coach and say these things in press conferences. We want to win all the time. No matter what. “We are going to try to win, but we know that we are in a different point if you compare to Arsenal. “So, it is what it is and we will try to win it and we go with confidence to win, but we know that we need to play very well to win the next football match.” The trip to Arsenal is the second of nine December matches for United, who are looking to avoid suffering four straight league defeats to the Gunners for the first time. The Red Devils have not won a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium since 2017, but Amorim knows a thing or two about frustrating Mikel Arteta’s men. Arsenal thrashed Sporting Lisbon 5-1 in the Champions League last week, but in 2022-23 he led the Portuguese side to a Europa League last-16 penalty triumph after a 1-1 draw in London made it 3-3 on aggregate. “Arsenal this year, they play a little bit different,” Amorim said. “They are more fluid. “For example, two years ago when we faced them with Sporting, you knew how to press because you can understand better the structure. “Now it’s more fluid with (Riccardo) Calafiori and (Jurrien) Timber in different sides. One coming inside, the other going outside. Also (Martin) Odegaard changed the team, and you can feel it during this season. “So, you can take something from that game, especially because I know so well the opponent so you can understand the weakness of that team. “But every game is different, so you take something, but you already know that you are going to face a very good team.” This hectic winter schedule means Amorim sidestepped talk of January transfer business ahead of facing Arsenal, although he was more forthcoming on Amad Diallo’s future. The 22-year-old, who put in a man of the match display in Sunday’s 4-0 win against Everton, is out of contract at the end of the season, although the club holds an option to extend by a year. Diallo has repeatedly spoken of his desire to stay at United and it has been reported an agreement is close. Amorim said: “I think he wants to stay, and we want him to stay. So that is clear and we will find a solution.”

How Trump’s bet on voters electing him managed to silence some of his legal woesFuture Red Wings defenseman breaks out at World JuniorsIan Schieffelin came within two assists of a triple-double and Clemson handed Penn State its first loss with a 75-67 decision for the championship of the Sunshine Slam tournament Tuesday in Daytona Beach, Fla. Schieffelin finished with 18 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists for the Tigers (6-1), leading four players in double figures. Chase Hunter added 17 points, while Chauncey Wiggins scored 14 and reserve Del Jones chipped in 10 points. Clemson sank 9 of 19 3-pointers, converted 16 of 20 free throws and was able to limit the impact of the Nittany Lions' full-court pressure. The Tigers committed just 13 turnovers, helping them hold Penn State (6-1) to less than 85 points for the first time this year. Ace Baldwin starred in defeat with game highs of 20 points and 11 assists, while center Yanic Konan Niederhauser added 14 points. Nick Kern came off the bench to score 11 but Penn State was outscored 15-2 on the fast break and made just 4 of 18 attempts from 3-point range. Schieffelin came up big down the stretch, assisting on a 3-pointer by Jaeden Zackery with 6:04 left that made it 65-61. Then he made two foul shots and tossed in a jump hook from the lane to up the margin to 71-66 with 1:03 left. The big storyline going into this game was which team would be able to control the pace. Penn State came in averaging 96 ppg, while Clemson demonstrated its ability to enforce a slower tempo in March, advancing to a regional final in the NCAA Tournament. In the first 10 minutes of the game, the Tigers made the Nittany Lions play at a crawl, opening up a 17-10 advantage when Schieffelin converted a short hook in the lane. But Penn State answered with an 18-4 run over nearly six minutes, establishing a 28-21 lead when Kern shook free for a layup. Clemson rallied with nine straight points but the Nittany Lions had the last say as Baldwin converted a layup with 24 seconds left, cutting the Tigers' edge to 38-36 at halftime. --Field Level Media

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NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers formally asked a judge Monday to throw out his hush money criminal conviction, arguing continuing the case would present unconstitutional “disruptions to the institution of the Presidency.“ In a filing made public Tuesday, Trump’s lawyers told Manhattan Judge Juan M. Merchan that dismissal is warranted because of the extraordinary circumstances of his impending return to the White House. “Wrongly continuing proceedings in this failed lawfare case disrupts President Trump’s transition efforts,” the attorneys continued, before citing the “overwhelming national mandate granted to him by the American people on November 5, 2024.” Prosecutors will have until Dec. 9 to respond. They have said they will fight any efforts to dismiss the case but have indicated openness to delaying sentencing until after Trump’s second term ends in 2029. Following Trump’s election victory last month, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed his sentencing, previously scheduled for late November, to allow the defense and prosecution to weigh in on the future of the case. He also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. Trump has been fighting for months to reverse the conviction, which involved efforts to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels, whose affair allegations threatened to disrupt his 2016 campaign. He has denied any wrongdoing. Trump takes office Jan. 20. Merchan hasn’t set a timetable for a decision. A dismissal would erase Trump’s historic conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office. Merchan could also decide to uphold the verdict and proceed to sentencing, delay the case until Trump leaves office, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court or choose some other option.Levis throws 2 TD passes to help Titans outlast Texans 32-27

Levis throws 2 TD passes to help Titans outlast Texans 32-27Patrick Mahomes and Chiefs win at the buzzer again, topping Panthers 30-27 on Shrader's field goal

188jili life Sam Altman , the CEO of OpenAI, has opened up about his complicated relationship with billionaire Elon Musk, calling the Tesla CEO a “bully.” Altman also discussed Musk's propensity to publicly quarrel with other well-known people, including Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos. Musk quit OpenAI in 2018 after being one of the company's first investors. Altman and Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with an aim to develop AI technology for human advantage. However, their collaboration deteriorated when Musk quit the firm, citing conflicts over its governance and direction. Following his exit, Musk emerged as an outspoken opponent of OpenAI, bringing legal action and claiming that the company misled him when it first started. Elon Musk on his relationship with Altman In a recent interview to the Free Press, Altman was asked about his equation with Musk and his issues with OpenAI. “Right now, it's me. It's been Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, lots of other people,” he said. Altman further argued that Musk's problems with OpenAI are a result of his need for power and that he would be happy with the company's course if he were the head. “Everything we're doing, I believe Elon would be happy about if he were in control of OpenAI,” he stated. Also Read: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to donate $1 million to Donald Trump's inaugural fund Altman expresses confidence that Musk wouldn't abuse his authority Altman, meanwhile, voiced confidence that Musk wouldn't abuse his position of authority to hurt rivals in response to worries about his possible influence under a second Trump administration. “I think there are people who will really be a jerk on Twitter who will still not abuse the system of the country,” he stated. In an interview with the New York Times DealBook Summit, it would be incredibly un-American to use political power to harm your rivals and benefit your own companies. “I may turn out to be wrong, but I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing.” Musk is presently suing Microsoft and OpenAI, alleging that they deviated from the project's initial charitable purpose. The Wall Street Journal claims that xAI, which he founded, is worth $50 billion, securing a place among the world's most valuable firms.None

Mellow Mushroom Now Open in Grant Park

Cooper Rush passed for two touchdowns, Dallas returned two kicks for scores and the visiting Cowboys held off the Washington Commanders in a wild fourth quarter for a 34-26 win. Dallas led 10-9 after three quarters. With Washington trailing 27-26, Jayden Daniels hit Terry McLaurin for an 86-yard touchdown pass with 21 seconds left, but Austin Seibert missed his second extra point of the game. Juanyeh Thomas of the Cowboys then returned the onside kick 43 yards for a touchdown. Rush completed 24 of 32 passes for 247 yards for Dallas (4-7), which snapped a five-game losing streak. Rico Dowdle ran 19 times for 86 yards and CeeDee Lamb had 10 catches for 67 yards. Jayden Daniels was 25-of-38 passing for 274 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions for reeling Washington (7-5), which has lost three straight. He ran for 74 yards and one score. McLaurin had five catches for 102 yards. Trailing 20-9 late in the fourth quarter, Daniels drove Washington 69 yards in nine plays and hit Zach Ertz for a 4-yard touchdown. Daniels ran for two points and Washington trailed 20-17 with 3:02 remaining. KaVontae Turpin muffed the ensuing kickoff, picked it up at the one, and raced 99 yards for a touchdown to make it 27-17. Austin Seibert's 51-yard field goal pulled the Commanders within 27-20 with 1:40 left, With the score tied 3-3, Washington took the second half kick and went 60 yards in 10 plays. On third-and-three from the Dallas 17, Daniels faked a handoff, ran left and scored his first rushing touchdown since Week 4. Seibert missed the point after and Washington led 9-3. Dallas answered with an 80-yard drive. A 23-yard pass interference penalty gave the Cowboys a first-and-goal at the 4. Two plays later Rush found Jalen Tolbert in the end zone and the extra point made it 10-9. Brandon Aubrey's 48-yard field goal made it 13-9 with 8:11 remaining in the game. On the next play, Daniels hit John Bates for 14 yards, but Donovan Wilson forced a fumble and Dallas recovered at the Washington 44. Five plays later, Rush found Luke Schoonmaker down the middle for a 22-yard touchdown and Dallas led 20-9 with 5:16 left. The first quarter was all about field goals. Aubrey's field goal attempt was blocked on the opening drive and Michael Davis returned it to the Dallas 40. Washington later settled for Seibert's 41-yard field goal. On the next Dallas drive, Aubrey hit the right upright from 42 yards out, and then Seibert missed from 51 yards. With 14 seconds left in the half, Rush found Jalen Brooks for a 41-yard gain to the Washington 28. On the next play Aubrey connected from 46 yards to tie it. --Field Level MediaSwimming Pool Market to grow by USD 7.44 Billion (2024-2028) as demand for luxurious lifestyles rises, Report highlighting AI's impact on market trends - Technavio2 convicted in human smuggling case after Indian family froze to death on US-Canada border

Tired of thinking about what gifts to get everyone this year? Artificial intelligence chatbots might help, but don’t expect them to do all the work or always give you the right answers. Anyone scouring the internet for deals is likely going to encounter more conversational iterations of the chatbots that some retailers and e-commerce sites have built to provide shoppers with enhanced customer service. Some companies have integrated models infused with newer generative AI technologies, allowing shoppers to seek advice by asking naturally phrased questions like “What’s the best wireless speaker?” Retailers hope consumers use these chatbots, which are typically called shopping assistants, as virtual companions that help them discover or compare products. Prior chatbots were mostly used for task-oriented functions such as helping customers track online orders or return ones that didn’t meet expectations. Amazon, the king of online retail, has said its customers have been questioning Rufus, the generative AI-powered shopping assistant it launched this year, for information such as whether a specific coffee maker is easy to clean, or what recommendations it has for a lawn game for a child’s birthday party. And Rufus, which is available for holiday shoppers in the U.S. and some other countries, is not the only shopping assistant out there. A select number of Walmart shoppers will have access this year to a similar chatbot the nation’s largest retailer is testing in a few product categories, including toys and electronics. Perplexity AI added something new to the AI chat-shopping world last month by rolling out a feature on its AI-powered search engine that enables users to ask a question like “What’s the best women’s leather boots?” and then receive specific product results that the San Francisco-based company says are not sponsored. “It has been adopted at pretty incredible scale,” Mike Mallazzo, an analyst and writer at retail research media company Future Commerce, said. Retailers with websites and e-commerce companies started paying more attention to chatbots when use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence text chatbot made by the company OpenAI, went mainstream in late 2022, sparking public and business interest in the generative AI technology that powers the tool. Victoria’s Secret, IKEA, Instacart and the Canadian retailer Ssense are among other companies experimenting with chatbots, some of which use technology from OpenAI. Even before the improved chatbots, online retailers were creating product recommendations based on a customer’s prior purchases or search history. Amazon was at the forefront of having recommendations on its platform, so Rufus’ ability to provide some is not particularly groundbreaking. But Rajiv Mehta, the vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, said the company is able to offer more helpful recommendations now by programming Rufus to ask clarifying or follow-up questions. Customers are also using Rufus to look for deals, some of which are personalized, Mehta said. To be sure, chatbots are prone to hallucinations, so Rufus and most of the tools like it can get things wrong. Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, wrote in a November blog post that his firm tested Rufus by requesting gaming TV recommendations. The chatbot’s response included products that were not TVs. When asked for the least expensive options, Rufus came back with suggestions that weren’t the cheapest, Kaziukenas said. An Associated Press reporter recently asked Rufus to give some gift recommendations for a brother. The chatbot quickly spit out a few ideas for “thoughtful gifts,” ranging from a T-shirt and a keychain with charms to a bolder suggestion: a multifunctional knife engraved with the phrase “BEST BROTHER EVER.” After a 5-minute written conversation, Rufus offered more tailored suggestions: a few Barcelona soccer jerseys sold by third-party sellers. But it wasn’t able to say which seller offered the lowest price. When asked during another search for a price comparison on a popular skin serum, Rufus showed the product’s pre-discounted price instead of its present one. “Rufus is constantly learning,” Amazon’s Mehta said during an interview. Shop AI, a chatbot that Canadian e-commerce company Shopify launched last year, can also help shoppers discover new products by asking its own questions, such as soliciting details about an intended gift recipient or features the buyer wants to avoid. Shop AI has trouble, however, recommending specific products or identifying the lowest-priced item in a product category. The limitations show the technology is still in its infancy and has a long way to go before it becomes as useful as the retail industry and many shoppers wish it could be. To truly transform the shopping experience, shopping assistants will “need to be deeply personalized” and be able, on their own, to remember a customer’s order history, product preferences and purchasing habits, consulting giant McKinsey & Company said in an August report. Amazon has noted that Rufus’ answers are based on information contained in product listings, community Q&As and customer reviews, which would include the fake reviews that are used to boost or diminish sales for products on its marketplace. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

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Marathon Petroleum Corp. stock underperforms Tuesday when compared to competitors

US says terror designation doesn't bar talks with Syrian rebel groupMORGANTOWN — It may go unseen, for the most part, at least that’s how Tucker DeVries describes the impact from his WVU men’s basketball teammate Toby Okani. “Everybody brings their own value and I think Toby’s value may not always show up on the stat sheet like other guys,” DeVries explained. Yet don’t think there is not an appreciation for what the 6-foot-8 Okani brings to the Mountaineers (6-2), who will host North Carolina Central (4-7) at 7 p.m. Tuesday inside the Coliseum. Okani is not going to show up on the opposition’s scouting report as the guy that needs to be shut down. And then he goes out and scores 20 points in a win against Arizona. He may not be the best rebounder, passer or shot blocker, but he finds some small way to contribute in each category. “I thought (at the Battle 4 Atlantis) he was incredibly valuable,” WVU head coach Darian DeVries said. “Javon (Small) and Tucker got a lot of the accolades, but Toby was terrific. He was very efficient.” Okani’s numbers don’t jump out at you, but he can’t be ignored at the same time. He just may also be WVU’s most versatile defender, in that he’s got guard-like skills to defend smaller players, but also enough size to guard bigger guys, too. “Toby is still trying to adjust his game to fit what this team needs,” Darian DeVries said. “He’s done a good job of that in where can he be the most effective? “Right now, he’s shooting it at a high rate from three. He’s putting himself in a position to rebound. He’s screening for other guys and defensively he’s so versatile for us. He can guard one through five and has great length and can go get the ball.” Okani enters tonight’s game having scored in double figures in his last four games. If that is a surprise, then it only leads to the theory that he is some type of silent assassin. “Toby can shoot it,” DeVries said. “He’s really confident in his shot. The other things we’ve talked to him about is defend and rebound. The offensive piece should be in addition to that. I think he’s bought in right now and doing a really good job in a lot of different areas for us.” Among WVU players who have attempted at least 50 shots so far, Okani’s 51.7 shooting percentage is tops on the team. He’s also shooting 40% from 3-point range, while averaging 4.0 rebounds per game. He came to WVU from Illinois-Chicago, after beginning his college career at Duquesne. Playing defense was always his reputation, and Okani was on the Missouri Valley Conference all-Defensive team last season, while finishing in the top 10 of the league in rebounding, steals and blocks. In his final college season at WVU, that game is expanding. He hit three critical 3-pointers in that win against Arizona. Against Georgetown last week, his tip-in basket gave the Mountaineers the lead for good with 11:22 remaining. Okani followed that up with a fast-break lay-up, as WVU pulled away for a 73-60 victory. Afterward, it was Small and Tucker DeVries combing for 41 points that stood out, but it was maybe Okani who has become a sort of X factor as the man behind the scenes who is also helping WVU trend in the right direction. “Toby is a big part of what we do,” Tucker DeVries said. “He plays tremendously hard. He’s a big part in what we do offensively and defensively, even if people may not realize it.”Canada 4 Nations roster: What we’re hearing about who made the cut and whyCLEVELAND (AP) — Jameis Winston didn't throw a pick-6 on Sunday in Pittsburgh. There's progress. In this lost season for the disappointing and shockingly bad Cleveland Browns, the small victories matter. Winston, who has been entertaining if not always effective in six starts, did have a pair of interceptions. But the Browns were more harmed by Dustin Hopkins missing two more field goals in falling 27-14 to the Steelers, who haven't lost a regular-season home game to Cleveland since 2003. Coming off a 497-yard passing performance, which included two pick-6's in a loss at Denver last Monday night, Winston played more cautiously against the Steelers (10-3). However, he still made mistakes and couldn't rally the Browns (3-10), who were trying to sweep the season series from their division rival for the first time in 36 years. Now that the Browns have officially and mathematically been eliminated from the AFC playoffs — logically, that happened weeks ago — it's probably time for them to start planning ahead for next season. But that won't include a change at quarterback as coach Kevin Stefanski said Monday that Winston, who has revived Cleveland's offense since taking over when Deshaun Watson ruptured his Achilles tendon in October, will start this week against the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. “Our focus right now is really just trying to find ways to get a win,” Stefanski said. While there's an argument to be made that the Browns should play second-year QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson over the next four weeks to see if he fits into their future, Stefanski is sticking with Winston, who has emerged as a viable option to start for Cleveland next season. Of course, with it being the Browns, all plans are subject to change. So there's a reasonable chance that Thompson-Robinson, who made three starts and played in eight games as a rookie, could get some time before the season ends. Stefanski wouldn't get into any specifics for his decision to ride with Winston, who has thrown for 1,892 yards while going 2-4 as a starter. “We’re just going to continue to do everything we can to play better,” Stefanski said on a Zoom call. “Obviously I think we can play better on offense. Certainly as a team we can play better, but really the focus is making sure that we put our guys in position to find a way to win.” Winston at least gives the Browns a chance to finish with some dignity. At this point, that's all they got. What's working Stefanski has kept his players focused and motivated. The Browns haven't quit, and that's a strong signal that Stefanski still has his player's attention in a season filled with disappointment. It might be more challenging now that the Browns are only playing for pride, but guard Wyatt Teller is confident the team will fight until the end. “It doesn’t matter if you’re in playoff contention or not,” he said. “You’re going to do the best you can to play at a high level and protect your brothers.” What needs help Penalties have been a problem all season (11 in the opener) and continued Sunday as the Browns were called for nine infractions, including a pair of personal fouls in the second half. Cleveland leads the NFL with 53 pre-snap penalties. Stock up Right tackle Jack Conklin. For the second straight game, Conklin, with some help from others, held Steelers star pass rusher T.J. Watt without a sack. Conklin's comeback after undergoing knee reconstruction last season has been a bright spot in an otherwise dark season. Stock down Hopkins. His two misses — a 38-yarder at the end of the first half and a 43-yarder early in the third quarter — were beyond deflating. Two makes and the game would have been tied at 13. So steady while going 33 of 36 and making all eight kicks from over 50 yards a year ago, Hopkins is in a 3 of 9 tailspin. The team's decision to sign him to a three-year, $15.9 million extension this summer appears to be another miss. Still, Stefanski is confident Hopkins will find his kicking swing. “This is something that I know he can get through,” Stefanski said. “We’ll get through it together. He’s a veteran. He’s been through a lot in his career already and this is something we’ll continue to work through.” Injuries CB Greg Newsome II injured the same hamstring Sunday that he had surgery on during the summer. Stefanski said Newsome will “miss time,” but did not say how much. ... DB Mike Ford is in concussion protocol after being hurt in the first half. ... Stefanski ruled out LB Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah again this week with a neck injury, but didn't provide any updates on his condition. Owusu-Koramoah was eligible to return last week. He got hurt on Oct. 27 while tackling Ravens running back Derrick Henry. Key number 99 1/2 — Career sacks for Myles Garrett, who recorded his 11th this season on Sunday. Garrett has 13 sacks against the Steelers, including six in his past three games. What's next A visit on Sunday from the Chiefs and perhaps pop superstar Taylor Swift, who could celebrate her birthday (Dec. 13) with a weekend in boyfriend Travis Kelce's hometown. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Tom Withers, The Associated Press

According to wealth tracking group, Informa Connect Academy (ICA), several current industry titans will achieve trillionaire status before the end of this decade. Elon Musk leads the race but it depends on whose share price performs best over the intervening period. As the head of the electric carmaker Tesla, private rocket company SpaceX and social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Musk is currently the world’s richest man with a current net worth on paper of roughly $450 billion (€431.5 billion), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires index. His wealth is estimated to have jumped by more than $170 billion since the US election and his alliance with president-elect Donald Trump, largely on the back of Tesla’s share price. Since the November 5th election, Tesla’s stock has surged 70 per cent. On the basis of his current trajectory, the ICA predicts he will hit the trillion mark in 2027. But Telsa’s share price has been volatile and Musk appears to be driving X into the ground so things may change. India’s business mogul Gautam Adani is predicted to hit the trillion mark in 2028 followed by Jensen Huang, the chief executive of the AI giant Nvidia, and Prajogo Pangestu, the Indonesian energy and mining mogul, provided their current financial trajectories hold. $1 trillion is a hard quantum to hold in your head. Put it this way, it would comfortably buy every home Ireland. It was only six years ago that companies reached the trillion dollar milestone in terms of valuations (Apple became the first to cross the $1 trillion mark in August 2018) and we marvelled, or thought absurd, that a single company could be financially bigger than a developed economy. There are currently nine companies with trillion dollar valuations: Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Saudi Aramco, Meta, Berkshire Hathway and Taiwanese semiconductor giant TSMC. Now we’re about to confront the notion that an individual could be as valuable as a developed nation and the millions of workers and their labour that comprise it. The Netherlands, one of Europe’s richest countries, has an annual GDP (gross domestic product) of roughly $1 trillion (€960 billion). So if the ICA is right, Musk will be richer than the Netherlands is now by 2027. What this acceleration in individual wealth says about the state of the world or modern capitalism is disturbing. On one level, it suggests that the current period of rapid technological transformation has outgunned the antitrust legislation designed to police it, creating behemoth monopolies and uber elites wielding too much economic power. According to UK economist Duncan Weldon, the wealth of these aspiring trillionaires is also tied into three more conventional but no less consequential economic trends: decades of low interest rates (which have boosted asset values); accelerated corporate profits; and a shift towards less progressive tax systems. Combined, these trends have accelerated global inequality. And this appears to be feeding into a breakdown in consensus politics, a throwback to the Rockefeller days when democracy in many countries fractured. According to Oxfam, this inequality trend has been supercharged by the pandemic. In a report earlier this year, the charity noted that almost five billion people had been made poorer by the pandemic while the wealth of the five richest people had more than doubled, from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion in late 2023. That’s an increase of $14 million an hour. The world’s richest 1 per cent now own 43 per cent of all global financial assets and emit as much carbon pollution as the poorest two-thirds of humanity, Oxfam says. Let’s not be naive, market capitalism depends on inequality and is, in part, driven by it (some people will work harder or take financial risks to get ahead), but when the gap between top and bottom gets too large, when a critical mass of citizens feel the system is rigged against them, we tend to get radical politics. That was surely the lesson of the 20th century. In the 1960s, the gap was modest by today’s standards. Expressed as the ratio of the boss’s salary to those on the factory floor, it was just 15-to-1 in the US. According to the Washington-based Economic Policy Institute, it is now 221-to-1. Other estimates suggest it is higher. Of course, salary is just one metric. In Ireland and other countries, an intergenerational divide on housing has become a major and ongoing source of grievance. Musk said once that he believed the effects of technology and artificial intelligence (AI) on employment would soon make it necessary for countries to provide citizens with a basic income as a guardrail against inequality. This was before he bought his way into the second Trump presidency (spending a reported $250 million on the campaign) and supercharging his wealth in the process.

A gunshot rang out on a recent morning in a meadow in northern Japan. The brown bear slumped in the cage, watched by a handful of city officials and hunters. The bear had been roaming around a nearby house and eating its way through adjacent cornfields, so officials and hunters in Sunagawa city had set a trap with a deer carcass to lure the voracious creature. "For me, it's always a bit deflating when a bear gets caught," Haruo Ikegami, 75, who heads the local hunters' association, told Reuters hours beforehand. Japan is grappling with a growing bear problem. A dwindling band of aging hunters is on the front line. A record 219 people were victims of bear attacks, six of them fatal, in the 12 months through March 2024, while more than 9,000 black and brown bears were trapped and culled over that period, according to Japan's environment ministry. Both species' habitats have been expanding; the ministry estimates that the number of brown bears in Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, more than doubled to about 11,700 in the three decades through 2020. (It doesn't keep estimates on black bears, most of which live on the main island of Honshu, though a widely cited 2023 analysis by Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper estimated their numbers at roughly 44,000, a threefold increase since 2012.) Restrictions on hunting practices and greater emphasis on conservation contributed to a surge in bear sightings over recent decades, according to Japan's Forest Research and Management Organisation. With Japan's rural areas experiencing rapid demographic decline, bears are venturing closer to towns and villages and into abandoned farmland, an environment ministry expert panel said in February. But bear expertise among local governments is spotty, and Japan's reliance on recreational hunters to protect settlements looks unsustainable as its population ages, according to Reuters interviews with almost two dozen people, including experts, hunters, officials and residents. Many called for changes to the way Japan manages human-bear conflict to address safety concerns while ensuring a future for the bears. In Hokkaido cities and towns like Sunagawa, Naie, Iwamizawa and Takikawa, which Reuters visited in October, some residents wonder what will happen when hunters can no longer do the job. Toru Yoshino, a 66-year-old chicken farmer in Sunagawa, said he was "terrified" by a bear that would wander into his farm a few years ago. As local authorities weighed how to respond, they ultimately relied on the hunters' association, the Sunagawa Ryoyukai, to neutralise the threat, he said. Sunagawa's city government told Reuters that efforts to capture the bear were complicated by its proximity to homes and deliberations about what to do once the animal was trapped. Although some hunters stalk bears as a hobby, Ikegami reckons not many are thrilled about culling trapped bears for local governments. "I don't want people to think of hunting as something fashionable. What we do is difficult. It's a big burden to take a life," he said. The burden is both mental and monetary. The hunter that shot the bear in Sunagawa would get about 8,000 yen, perhaps enough to cover fuel and expenses but little else, Ikegami said. Hunters also risk clashing with authorities. Ikegami's guns were seized by Hokkaido authorities in 2019 after they deemed his attempt to shoot a bear near a house was ill-judged. He is battling in court to have the weapons returned. The Hokkaido safety officials involved in the matter declined to address Reuters questions about the case. In response to increased bear attacks, Japanese government officials this year proposed relaxing rules around gun use to make it easier for hunters to shoot bears in urban areas. Local governments of Sunagawa, Takikawa and Iwamizawa told Reuters that regional and national authorities could go further to address the problem. This could include promoting the recruitment of hunters and improving their conditions, among other ideas. Japan's environment ministry said it subsidises efforts to train local officials and conduct bear drills in towns, but added that regional differences in human-bear conflicts called for tailor-made approaches. The Hokkaido government's wildlife bureau said it ran various initiatives to incentivise and recruit hunters, including promotional events and training people in how to handle brown bears. Environmental group WWF said in an email that to preserve Japan's bear population, authorities should take actions including developing human-wildlife buffer zones and formulating a national protection and management plan. It declined to comment specifically on the culling of bears in Japan. While its numbers have been growing in Japan, the Asiatic black bear is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN's red list of threatened species globally. The brown bear is listed as least concern. GROWING OLD Bear hunting was lucrative until the 1980s, and hide and bile were traded for high prices. But with growing environmental awareness and changes to regulations and consumer tastes, the practice has fallen out of favour. Japan issued some 218,500 hunting licenses in the 2020 fiscal year, less than half of the 517,800 it issued in 1975, according to official data. While about 98% of those issued in 1975 were for shooting, that figure dropped to 42% in 2020, the most recent data. The remaining licenses are for trapping. About 60% of licence holders were aged over 60, according to 2020 data. Hunting is expensive, unappealing, and exhausting, the hunters say. Traps need to be checked daily while bears lurk nearby. Rifle owners must abide by Japan's strict firearms laws and invest in ammunition and gun storage. Those difficulties came to a head earlier this year in Naie, where hunter Tatsuhito Yamagishi, 72, accused the local government of taking hunters for granted, without investing in a longer-term solution. "Once we grow old and have no choice but to quit, this reliance on the hunters' association is not going to work," Yamagishi said. Naie's local government declined to comment on the dispute with Yamagishi but said officials were taking steps to address the bear problem, including working with licensed hunters from outside the area. Some experts, including Koji Yamazaki, a professor at Tokyo University of Agriculture who studies bears, said depopulation and a decline in the amount of managed farmland in recent decades may have led bears to become bolder about approaching towns. Clearer demarcation between habitats would help humans and bears coexist, he said. Yoshikazu Sato, professor of agriculture at Rakuno Gakuen University, said bears appeared to be raising cubs closer to human settlements, causing young bears not to fear people as much as before. Climate change-driven shifts in the ripening and flowering of fruits, nuts and leaves may drive bears to raid crops when their usual food sources are low, he added. "What we need is a daily, consistent effort to make sure that bears don't enter human areas," Sato said. MONSTER WOLF Katsuo Harada, an 84-year-old hunter, said that ultimately, Japan should create a system where hunters are paid enough to support a family. "Unless they're paid properly, we can't nurture the next generation of hunters," he said. Harada carries the scars of a bear attack more than 20 years ago, when the animal sank its teeth into his skull. "It sounded like it was munching on some raw radish," he said. He fought off the bear, and his hunting buddies called for help. The subsequent surgery took 16 hours, he said. Harada is now part of a non-profit organization, Farming Support Hokkaido, that helps communities keep problematic wildlife at bay. "If I don't keep doing my job, there may be casualties," Harada said. Japan's environment ministry in September warned about the possibility of a surge in bear attacks towards year-end, when the animals typically scavenge for food to store up fat for hibernation. In 2023, bear sightings and attacks peaked in October, according to official data. With Japan's population aging and shrinking, some companies are turning to technology to manage bears. Propped on four rods, the "Monster Wolf" robot sold by Sapporo-based Wolf Kamuy emits growls, barks and threats from a loudspeaker, triggered by a sensor. Priced at about 400,000 yen and powered by solar energy, the gleaming-eyed beast has demonstrated some success in warding off bears, though its sensor can be triggered by other animals, said company vice-president Yuji Ohta. But Yamagishi, the hunter in Naie, said it takes years of analyzing paw prints and dung and learning to read bears' signs to understand how to trap them, adding that human expertise will remain integral to managing the problem. Yamagishi thinks it would take three to five years to train a new generation of hunters. "By then, we'll all be retired," he said.

Waterless Printing Plate Market Outlook and Future Projections for 2030

By JILL COLVIN and STEPHEN GROVES WASHINGTON (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. Vice President-elect JD Vance, still a Republican senator from Ohio, walks from a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., center, and Vice President-elect JD Vance, left, walk out of a meeting with Republican Senate Judiciary Committee members, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, departs the chamber at the Capitol in Washington, March 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, center speaks during a Senate Banking Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, right, speaks with Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, before testifying at a hearing, March 9, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a classified briefing on China, at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 15, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, arrives for a vote on Capitol Hill, Sept. 12, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File) FILE – Sen. JD Vance R-Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) Vice President-elect JD Vance, still a Republican senator from Ohio, walks from a private meeting with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to be attorney general, former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) 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.The semiconductor industry, renowned for its impressive growth over past decades, is rallying on the back of artificial intelligence (AI) advancements. Though economic slowdowns raise concerns, the demand for cutting-edge devices continues to boost the need for more sophisticated chips. A recent IDC report forecasts a 15% expansion in the semiconductor market by 2025, driven by AI. This development could present a prime opportunity for investors, especially in stocks like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Micron Technology (MU), which have seen a dip in their stock values despite healthy revenue growth in the data center sector. AMD, which has seen a significant increase in its server CPU market share, anticipates a surge in demand for its GPUs within data centers. This promising demand outlook resonates with Wall Street’s optimistic predictions for AMD’s stock, which currently trades significantly below its peak. The company forecasts that the market for AI accelerators will grow substantially, suggesting a long-term growth trajectory. Meanwhile, Micron Technology, a leader in memory and storage solutions, has enjoyed a notable recovery since 2022. Despite recent market fluctuations, Micron’s sales to data centers have soared, particularly with their high-bandwidth memory outperforming expectations. The company remains optimistic about returning to record revenue by 2025, but unknown variables in demand make future predictions challenging. Both AMD and Micron present tantalizing prospects for 2025, yet AMD’s consistent growth positions it as a potentially safer bet for investors aiming to capitalize on Wall Street’s bullish outlook. Why the Semiconductor Boom Driven by AI Presents Unmatched Opportunities The semiconductor industry is poised for an exhilarating transformation sparked by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI). With a projected market expansion of 15% by 2025, as reported by IDC, AI is set to redefine the landscape while offering exceptional investment prospects. This article explores new dimensions that could shape the industry’s future, including innovations, opportunities, and strategic insights. Emerging Trends and Innovations The semiconductor sector is experiencing groundbreaking innovations, particularly in AI-specific chip design. Companies like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Micron Technology are leading this charge with their focus on developing high-performance chips for AI applications. AMD’s strategic investment in GPU technology gears up to power more robust and efficient AI processors, while Micron’s advancements in high-bandwidth memory are setting new benchmarks in data handling capabilities. Investment Opportunities and Predictions For investors keen to enter the semiconductor market, the dip in stock values of key players like AMD and Micron Technology presents an attractive entry point. Analysts remain optimistic about these stocks, with a consensus on AMD’s continued growth driven by increased demand for GPUs in data centers. Predictions indicate a substantial rise in AI accelerator market share, hinting at AMD’s long-term growth potential. Similarly, Micron aims to recover to record revenue levels by 2025, powered by innovations in memory and storage solutions critical for AI and machine learning processes. However, potential investors should remain cautious due to possible demand fluctuations that could impact projections. Market Analysis and Strategic Insights The semiconductor market’s future hinges on its ability to adapt to AI’s evolving needs. Key insights suggest focusing on AI-driven demand could be the linchpin for sustained growth. Data center sales illustrate a robust demand for high-performance computing solutions, underlining the importance of developing chips optimized for AI tasks. Challenges and Limitations While the industry’s growth outlook is promising, challenges such as supply chain disruptions and fluctuating demand could impede progress. The reliance on rare materials and international market conditions also pose logistical and operational challenges that stakeholders must navigate to maintain momentum. Concluding Thoughts The semiconductor industry’s trajectory is closely tied to AI innovations, offering promising yet complex prospects for businesses and investors alike. Embracing AI’s potential, particularly through strategic investments in companies like AMD and Micron Technology, could prove transformative. As the sector evolves, staying informed and agile will be essential for capitalizing on the nascent opportunities in this rapidly advancing field. Learn more about semiconductor trends at IDC and explore investment opportunities through AMD and Micron Technology .

Tired of thinking about what gifts to get everyone this year? Artificial intelligence chatbots might help, but don’t expect them to do all the work or always give you the right answers. Anyone scouring the internet for deals is likely going to encounter more conversational iterations of the chatbots that some retailers and e-commerce sites have built to provide shoppers with enhanced customer service. Some companies have integrated models infused with newer generative AI technologies, allowing shoppers to seek advice by asking naturally phrased questions like “What’s the best wireless speaker?” Retailers hope consumers use these chatbots, which are typically called shopping assistants, as virtual companions that help them discover or compare products. Prior chatbots were mostly used for task-oriented functions such as helping customers track online orders or return ones that didn’t meet expectations. Amazon, the king of online retail, has said its customers have been questioning Rufus, the generative AI-powered shopping assistant it launched this year, for information such as whether a specific coffee maker is easy to clean, or what recommendations it has for a lawn game for a child’s birthday party. And Rufus, which is available for holiday shoppers in the U.S. and some other countries, is not the only shopping assistant out there. A select number of Walmart shoppers will have access this year to a similar chatbot the nation’s largest retailer is testing in a few product categories, including toys and electronics. Perplexity AI added something new to the AI chat-shopping world last month by rolling out a feature on its AI-powered search engine that enables users to ask a question like “What’s the best women’s leather boots?” and then receive specific product results that the San Francisco-based company says are not sponsored. “It has been adopted at pretty incredible scale,” Mike Mallazzo, an analyst and writer at retail research media company Future Commerce, said. Retailers with websites and e-commerce companies started paying more attention to chatbots when use of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence text chatbot made by the company OpenAI, went mainstream in late 2022, sparking public and business interest in the generative AI technology that powers the tool. Victoria’s Secret, IKEA, Instacart and the Canadian retailer Ssense are among other companies experimenting with chatbots, some of which use technology from OpenAI. Even before the improved chatbots, online retailers were creating product recommendations based on a customer’s prior purchases or search history. Amazon was at the forefront of having recommendations on its platform, so Rufus’ ability to provide some is not particularly groundbreaking. But Rajiv Mehta, the vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, said the company is able to offer more helpful recommendations now by programming Rufus to ask clarifying or follow-up questions. Customers are also using Rufus to look for deals, some of which are personalized, Mehta said. To be sure, chatbots are prone to hallucinations, so Rufus and most of the tools like it can get things wrong. Juozas Kaziukenas, founder of e-commerce intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, wrote in a November blog post that his firm tested Rufus by requesting gaming TV recommendations. The chatbot’s response included products that were not TVs. When asked for the least expensive options, Rufus came back with suggestions that weren’t the cheapest, Kaziukenas said. An Associated Press reporter recently asked Rufus to give some gift recommendations for a brother. The chatbot quickly spit out a few ideas for “thoughtful gifts,” ranging from a T-shirt and a keychain with charms to a bolder suggestion: a multifunctional knife engraved with the phrase “BEST BROTHER EVER.” After a 5-minute written conversation, Rufus offered more tailored suggestions: a few Barcelona soccer jerseys sold by third-party sellers. But it wasn’t able to say which seller offered the lowest price. When asked during another search for a price comparison on a popular skin serum, Rufus showed the product’s pre-discounted price instead of its present one. “Rufus is constantly learning,” Amazon’s Mehta said during an interview. Shop AI, a chatbot that Canadian e-commerce company Shopify launched last year, can also help shoppers discover new products by asking its own questions, such as soliciting details about an intended gift recipient or features the buyer wants to avoid. Shop AI has trouble, however, recommending specific products or identifying the lowest-priced item in a product category. The limitations show the technology is still in its infancy and has a long way to go before it becomes as useful as the retail industry and many shoppers wish it could be. To truly transform the shopping experience, shopping assistants will “need to be deeply personalized” and be able, on their own, to remember a customer’s order history, product preferences and purchasing habits, consulting giant McKinsey & Company said in an August report. Amazon has noted that Rufus’ answers are based on information contained in product listings, community Q&As and customer reviews, which would include the fake reviews that are used to boost or diminish sales for products on its marketplace. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Final regular-season games loom large in determining conference championship matchups

Final regular-season games loom large in determining conference championship matchupsBharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), during its “Ask BSNL” campaign conducted on X (formerly Twitter) on December 20, shared several significant updates about the progress of its 4G network rollout and other upcoming services. Among the key announcements, the state-owned telecom company confirmed its plan to introduce eSIM services by March 2025. This development is particularly important for users of devices from manufacturers like Apple and Google, which typically feature a single physical SIM card slot alongside an eSIM option. BSNL also reiterated its commitment to completing the nationwide rollout of its 4G network by June 2025. As part of this expansion, the company plans to introduce supplementary services like Voice over LTE (VoLTE) and Voice over Wi-Fi (VoWiFi) in a gradual, phased approach. These enhancements aim to improve the user experience and provide seamless connectivity across the network. #AskBSNL BSNL is in the process of rolling out 4G services pan India, and the process is likely to be completed by June 2025. eSIM will be made available in next three months. VoWifi feature is being tested in BSNL Network. We expect to launch it all over India basis in near... https://t.co/fqH0PJQ51h — BSNL India (@BSNLCorporate) December 20, 2024 ALSO READ | Samsung Terminates Employees For Leaking Images Of Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: Report Will BSNL Increase Tariffs? Sandeep Govil, Director of Consumer Mobility on the BSNL board, addressed concerns about potential price changes. He assured users that BSNL currently has no intention of raising tariffs, providing a sense of relief to customers. This announcement comes at a time when all three major private telecom providers in India have recently implemented price hikes, making BSNL a more appealing alternative for those considering a switch. These updates highlight BSNL's efforts to enhance its service offerings while maintaining affordability for its subscribers. BSNL's 4G network rollout is set to be supported by the deployment of 22,000 towers across India as part of the ambitious 4G saturation project. The telecom company aims to establish a total of 100,000 towers nationwide, with plans to expand this infrastructure in subsequent phases based on future requirements. In addition to its 4G efforts, BSNL has been introducing various innovative services. Notably, the company serves as the exclusive provider of global satellite phone services in India. BSNL has also become the first telecom operator in the country to offer direct-to-device satellite connectivity. However, specific details regarding the subscription process for this cutting-edge service are yet to be disclosed, leaving customers eager for further information.Final regular-season games loom large in determining conference championship matchups

188jili promo code today TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / December 4, 2024 / Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. (TSX:PIF) ("Polaris" or the "Company") announces that it has successfully settled a previously announced private placement of USD 175 million senior secured green bonds. The bonds will have a tenor of five years and a fixed coupon rate of 9.5% percent per annum, with interest payable in semi-annual instalments. Furthermore, the Green Bond will include a tap feature, allowing for access to an additional USD $50 million in funding for potential future uses. The bond issue is rated BB- by S&P Global Ratings and is issued under the Company's green finance framework with second-party opinion from Morningstar Sustainalytics. Marc Murnaghan, Chief Executive Officer of Polaris comments: "We are very pleased to successfully settle this inaugural bond issue with strong interest from a wide set of international investors. The bond optimizes the Company's capital structure and secures financing for further growth and increased diversification of cash flow." Net proceeds of the bonds will be used to refinance certain existing debt facilities, the acquisition of the Punta Lima wind farm in Puerto Rico and other investments in renewable energy assets. Pareto Securities acted as lead manager and sole bookrunner for the bond issue. National Bank Financial Inc. acted as Capital Markets Advisor on the transaction. The bonds have not been and will not be qualified for distribution in any province or territory of Canada. Accordingly, the bonds may not be offered or sold within any such province or territory except in transactions exempt from the prospectus requirements of applicable securities laws. No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved the contents of this press release. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the bonds in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. About Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. is a Canadian publicly traded company engaged in the development, construction, acquisition, and operation of renewable energy projects in five countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Company's operations include a geothermal plant (~82 MW), four run-of river hydroelectric plants (~40 MW), three solar (photovoltaic) projects in operation (~35 MW) and one wind park (26 MW) following closing of the Puerto Rico acquisition. For more information, contact: Investor Relations Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. Phone: +1 647-245-7199 Email: info@PolarisREI.com Cautionary Statements This press release contains certain "forward-looking information" which may include, but is not limited to, statements with respect to future events or future performance, the expected use of proceeds or rating(s) of any such issuance, the Company's acquisition and other investment plans, any benefits to the Company's financial or business performance, the settlement date of the bonds and the listing of the bonds on the Oslo Alternative Bond Market. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. Such factors include, among others, the ability of the Company to satisfy any interest payments, which may be affected by such factors as general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; the actual results of current geothermal, solar and hydro energy production, development and/or exploration activities and the accuracy of probability simulations prepared to predict prospective geothermal resources; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; possible variations of production rates; failure of plant, equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; accidents, labour disputes and other risks of the geothermal and hydro power industries; political instability or insurrection or war; labour force availability and turnover; delays in obtaining governmental approvals or in the completion of development or construction activities, or in the commencement of operations; the ability of the Company to continue as a going concern and general economic conditions, as well as those factors discussed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Information Form. These factors should be considered carefully and readers of this press release should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Although the forward-looking information contained in this press release is based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, there can be no assurance that such forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The information in this press release, including such forward-looking information, is made as of the date of this press release and, other than as required by applicable securities laws, Polaris assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances. SOURCE: Polaris Renewable Energy Inc. View the original on accesswire.com

Adams has 19 as CSU Northridge defeats Denver 89-60If you haven't been on Elon Musk's X platform lately, you may have missed some of the most heated - and most frank - public debate in recent memory by incoming Trump administration officials and other conservatives on the value of the highly coveted H-1B foreign worker visas. President-elect Donald Trump has yet to weigh in, but his advisers and supporters appear to have very conflicting opinions on whether the H-1B visas are indeed "making America great again". According to the Department of Labor, the H-1B program is designed for "nonimmigrant aliens as workers in specialty occupations... of distinguished merit and ability". A specialty occupation must include "the attainment of at least a bachelor's degree", and the programme is meant to "help employers who cannot otherwise obtain needed business skills and abilities from the US workforce". A large portion of Trump's base is passionately opposed to greater immigration to the US, even if that means skilled labour, but some of Trump's most high-profile appointees to his incoming administration are staunchly in favour of it, deeming it a necessity, and want to increase its volume. The current debate began last week when the president-elect appointed Indian-American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as senior policy adviser for artificial intelligence on the incoming White House team. Krishnan previously worked at Microsoft and was one of the founders of Windows Azure. Just before Christmas, one of Krishnan's earlier on X resurfaced, calling for an increase in skilled immigration - a reference to the H-1B program. He hoped Musk would tackle the issue in his new role. DOGE, Krishnan said, should do "anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration". DOGE is the so-called Department of Government Efficiency initiated by the incoming Trump administration and will be c0-headed by South African immigrant, billionaire and Tesla CEO Musk, as well as Vivek Ramaswamy, a former Republican presidential contender and first-generation Indian immigrant. Krishnan was met with racist backlash from hundreds of Trump supporters, particularly after he was announced for the White House role. But both Musk and Ramaswamy lent him their support, agreeing that more foreign talent is necessary to fill what they feel are glaring gaps in US companies - and to keep the US the most competitive in the world. "The number of people who are super talented engineers AND super motivated in the USA is far too low," Musk wrote on his social media platform. "If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win." He that he is "referring to bringing in via legal immigration the top ~0.1% of engineering talent as being essential for America to keep winning". Ramaswamy took the argument a step further, American society itself. "Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn't start in college, it starts YOUNG," he wrote on X. "A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers," he added. "I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity... and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates," referring to Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics degrees. "'Normalcy' doesn't cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we'll have our asses handed to us by China," he added. The backlash was swift from Trump supporters. "Turns out the 'waste' that DOGE wanted to cut from America was Americans," Auron MacIntyre, a columnist at the conservative news site The Blaze. Another user writing under a pseudonym said, "I'm still waiting on how this strategy benefits current Americans that worked to put [Ramaswamy] in this position." The post also triggered a wave of rampant racism directed primarily at Indians, coming from Trump supporters and opponents of immigration. Other notable figures also weighed in. Political analyst and founder of Eurasia Group, Ian Bremmer, : "It's hard to win over Americans on attracting the best and the brightest from abroad when so many feel their own elected leaders haven't invested in them at home. Prioritize that, walk the talk, you (eventually) get more support for legal immigration." But it was the remarks from far-right political commentator and Trump loyalist Laura Loomer that may have been the most inflammatory, as she called Indians "third world invaders" and that "the average IQ in India is 76". Replying to another user who said they wouldn't want to live in India, she "you'd likely get raped on arrival". Loomer has 1.4 million followers on X. Citing an H-1B salary database for tech workers, she wrote that "nobody can afford to live off $70,000 in today's America," suggesting that tech CEOs prefer foreign workers because they could pay them less. Loomer's account on X was then suspended for 12 hours. As X users watched the feud play out over the holiday period, a self-described Democrat named Carlos Turnbull posted: "Loomer is noticeably not saying anything about Trump also bringing in H-1B workers to staff his clubs and Trump Vineyards. Probably just an oversight." The American Immigration Council says only 65,000 H-1B visas are awarded yearly, with 20,000 more going to people whose postgraduate studies were at US institutions. Most of these workers are in science, technology, engineering or mathematics, otherwise known as STEM. The H-1B visa lasts three years and can be extended for six. The employer must petition the government for it on a prospective worker's behalf, and if successful, the employer can also later choose to sponsor that worker for a Green Card: a permanent US residency. Currently, some 700,000 people work in the US under H-1B status. Over 85 percent of H-1B petitions received go to people of Indian (75 percent) and Chinese (12 percent) origin with Canada, South Korea and the Philippines rounding out the . The demand for H1-B visas far outstrips the supply and studies have shown that the programme fills employment gaps. Trump's first administration denied a larger portion of H1-B petitions compared to President Barack Obama's administration. The cities with the highest number of H1-B workers are in New York, San Jose, San Francisco and Dallas.

The American Athletic Conference is the only Football Bowl Subdivision league whose championship game matchup is set: Army vs. Tulane. The final week of the regular season will determine pairings for the other eight conferences. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — What's stoking the Denver Broncos' surprising surge is the growing connection between rookie quarterback Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton. Whenever the Broncos (7-5) need a clutch catch, a key flag or a timely touchdown, Sutton is usually the one delivering it like he did Sunday when he caught eight passes on 10 targets for 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns that sparked the Broncos' come-from-behind 29-19 win at Las Vegas. “Courtland played tremendous,” coach Sean Payton said. Again. “He’s just reliable,” Nix said. “He's just always there when you need him.” Sutton's size (6-foot-4 and 216 pounds) and experience (he's in his seventh NFL season) make him an ideal target and safety valve for the rookie QB whose confidence is growing by the week. “He’s smart. He’s savvy. He makes plays when the ball’s in the air,” Nix said. “You can trust him. When it’s up in the air, it’s his or nobody’s. It’s not going to be a pick.” Nix's first touchdown toss to Sutton was an 18-yarder that allowed the QB to break Marlin Briscoe's 1968 Denver rookie record of 14 TD passes, and the two connected again with 5:30 left to make it a two-score game. The Broncos trailed 13-9 at halftime and Nix said they knew they had to get the ball into Sutton's hands more in the second half after he had caught the only pass thrown his way in the first half (for 17 yards). “Didn’t target him (much) in the first half,” Nix said. “We come out and say, ‘Look, Courtland, this is your half.’ We take over the game. He goes for two touchdowns. That just kind of speaks for what he means to our team.” Sutton has been on a tear after since he wasn't targeted a single time in Denver's 33-10 win at New Orleans on Oct. 17. (Payton mentioned as recently as last week what an anomaly that game was because there was a heavy diet of plays for Sutton that just didn't pan out for various reasons.) In his six games before that goose egg, Sutton had 21 catches on 49 targets for 277 yards and a touchdown. In the five games since, he's caught 36 of the 48 balls thrown his way for 467 yards and three TDs. Plus, he threw a touchdown pass to Nix on a “Philly Special” at Baltimore in Week 9. “I think we're just scratching the surface,” Sutton said. Thanks in part to the chemistry between Nix and Sutton, the Broncos are in position for the seventh and final playoff spot entering December. The passing game, thanks to the Nix-Sutton connection. The running game. Javonte Williams had just 2 yards on eight carries and Audric Estime ran three times for 15 yards against the Raiders' run-heavy fronts and a steady diet of blitzes. Jaleel McLaughlin saved the day with seven carries for 44 yards. OLB Nik Bonitto. His 10 sacks make him the first Denver defender with double-digit sacks since 2018, when Von Miller did it. Once again, the Broncos' special teams, with the exception of K Wil Lutz, who hasn't missed a field goal attempt or extra point since his protection unit cratered at Kansas City three weeks ago and allowed the Chiefs to block what would have been the game-winning kick as time expired. On Sunday, the Raiders had a successful fake punt and a 59-yard kickoff return. Payton isn't saying much about the injuries to DE Zach Allen (heel) and CB Riley Moss (knee) except that to him they're not serious setbacks for either player. 2 — The Broncos are two games above .500 for the first time since starting the 2021 season with three wins. The Broncos host Cleveland (3-8) on Monday night ahead of their bye week. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

U.S. stocks rose to records after data suggested the job market remains solid enough to keep the economy going, but not so strong that it raises immediate worries about inflation. The S&P 500 climbed 0.2%, just enough top the all-time high set on Wednesday, as it closed a third straight winning week in what looks to be one of its best years since the 2000 dot-com bust. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 0.3%, while the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.8% to set its own record. Treasury yields eased after the jobs report showed stronger hiring than expected but also an uptick in the unemployment rate. On Friday: The S&P 500 rose 15.16 points, or 0.2%, to 6,090.27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 123.19 points, or 0.3%, to 44,642.52. The Nasdaq composite rose 159.05 points, or 0.8%, to 19,859.77. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies rose 12.83 points, or 0.5%, to 2,408.99. For the week: The S&P 500 is up 57.89 points, or 1%. The Dow is down 268.13 points, or 0.6%. The Nasdaq is up 641.61 points, or 3.3%. The Russell 2000 is down 25.73 points, or 1.1%. For the year: The S&P 500 is up 1,320.44 points, or 27.7%. The Dow is up 6,952.98 points, or 18.4%. The Nasdaq is up 4,848.42 points, or 32.3%. The Russell 2000 is up 381.92 points, or 18.8%.None

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — Marcus Adams Jr.'s 19 points helped CSU Northridge defeat Denver 89-60 on Monday night. Adams also added 11 rebounds for the Matadors (5-1). Keonte Jones added 17 points while shooting 4 of 6 from the field and 8 for 8 from the line and also had five rebounds and three blocks. PJ Fuller shot 2 of 8 from the field, including 0 for 4 from 3-point range, and went 6 for 6 from the line to finish with 10 points. Nicholas Shogbonyo led the way for the Pioneers (3-4) with 15 points. Pedro Lopez-Sanvicente added 10 points and two blocks for Denver. The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar . For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Data Skrive. Get local news delivered to your inbox!Kharge to lead Opposition strategy meeting as Parliament session kicks off on Monday

Body of girl found near Platteville identified 50 years later using forensic genealogy

The American Athletic Conference is the only Football Bowl Subdivision league whose championship game matchup is set: Army vs. Tulane. The final week of the regular season will determine pairings for the other eight conferences. Here's a look at the possible matchups in the Power Four and Group of Five. All championship games are Dec. 7 except in the AAC, Conference USA and Mountain West, which will be played Dec. 6. ACC at Charlotte, North Carolina SMU vs. Miami or Clemson. Miami is in if it beats Syracuse. Clemson is in if Miami loses. Big Ten at Indianapolis Oregon vs. Ohio State, Penn State or Indiana. Ohio State is in if it beats Michigan or if Penn State and Indiana lose this week. Penn State is in if it beats Maryland and Ohio State loses. Indiana is in if it beats Purdue and Ohio State and Penn State lose. Big 12 at Arlington, Texas Arizona State vs. Iowa State if both win this week. Multiple scenarios including BYU, Colorado and other teams exist otherwise. SEC at Atlanta Georgia vs. winner of Texas-Texas A&M game. American Athletic at TBD Army vs. Tulane. Conference USA at Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville State vs. Liberty, Western Kentucky or Sam Houston. Liberty is in with a win over Sam Houston. WKU is in with a win over Jacksonville State and a Liberty loss. Sam Houston is in with a win over Liberty and a Jacksonville State win. Mid-American at Detroit Miami, Bowling Green and Ohio are tied for first place and control their destinies. Miami-Bowling Green winner is in, as is Ohio if it beats Ball State. Other scenarios exist that include those teams and Buffalo. Mountain West at Boise, Idaho Boise State vs. UNLV or Colorado State. If UNLV and CSU both win or lose their final regular-season games, the tie would be broken by either College Football Playoff rankings or results-based computer metrics. Sun Belt at TBD Louisiana-Lafayette at Marshall if both win their games this week. Other scenarios exist if one or both lose. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-footballNoneJudge dismisses US election interference case against Trump

Snap Happy! Best Cameras for Photography in 2025Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) The United States is expected to announce that it will send 1.25 billion dollars (£1 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine, US officials said on Friday, as the Biden administration pushes to get as much aid to Kyiv as possible before leaving office on January 20. The large package of aid includes a significant amount of munitions, including for the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems and the Hawk air defence system. It also will provide Stinger missiles and 155mm and 105mm artillery rounds, officials said. The officials, who said they expect the announcement to be made on Monday, spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public. US President Joe Biden has supported Ukraine since the Russian invasion (Susan Walsh/AP) The new aid comes as Russia launched a barrage of attacks against Ukraine’s power facilities in recent days, although Ukraine has said it intercepted a significant number of the missiles and drones. Russian and Ukrainian forces are also still in a bitter battle around the Russian border region of Kursk, where Moscow has sent thousands of North Korean troops to help reclaim territory taken by Ukraine. Earlier this month, senior defence officials acknowledged that the US Defence Department may not be able to send all of the remaining 5.6 billion dollars (£4.5 billion) in Pentagon weapons and equipment stocks passed by Congress for Ukraine before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in. Mr Trump has talked about getting some type of negotiated settlement between Ukraine and Russia, and spoken about his relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Many US and European leaders are concerned that it might result in a poor deal for Ukraine and they worry that he will not provide Ukraine with all the weapons funding approved by Congress. The aid in the new package is in presidential drawdown authority, which allows the Pentagon to take weapons off the shelves and send them quickly to Ukraine. This latest assistance would reduce the remaining amount to about 4.35 billion dollars (£3.46 billion). Officials have said they hope that an influx of aid will help strengthen Ukraine’s hand, should Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky decide it is time to negotiate. One senior defence official said that while the US will continue to provide weapons to Ukraine until January 20, there may well be funds remaining that will be available for the incoming Trump administration to spend. According to the Pentagon, there is also about 1.2 billion dollars (£0.9 billion) remaining in longer-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which is used to pay for weapons contracts that would not be delivered for a year or more. Officials have said the administration anticipates releasing all of that money before the end of the calendar year. If the new package is included, the US will have provided more than 64 billion dollars (£50.8 billion) in security assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Pheu Thai appears to beat People’s Party in Udon Thani local election

NoneWhere Will Nvidia Stock Be in 3 Years? - The Motley FoolNFL commissioner Roger Goodell escaped being hit in the face with a pie after the Indianapolis Colts mascot, Blue, had second thoughts when approaching him on Sunday . Goodell was a guest at Lucas Oil Stadium to watch the game between the Colts and Detroit Lions , and before kickoff, was speaking to a member of the Lions personnel on the sidelines. Goodell was then tapped on the shoulder by Blue and turned around to see the mascot holding a small pie dish covered in heaps of whipped cream. Blue then pretended to launch the pie in Goodell's face, causing the commissioner to flinch and instantly raise his hands in protection. Blue then stopped and embraced Goodell as the commissioner began nervously laughing at the near miss. The Colts mascot is known for being a menace, and shared the video on the official Blue account on X. The video was captioned: "Just kidding...I would never." Baker Mayfield adds to Giants embarrassment with ruthless Tommy DeVito celebration Baltimore Ravens have unexpected reason for wanting to sign Daniel Jones It's fair to assume that Goodell wouldn't have appreciated being hit with a pie, and Blue may have been in trouble with the Colts organization. However, he's been called out by fans for not going through with it. "Imagine if Blue actually did that, Rodger would immediately banish the Colts to the shadow realm," one fan wrote in response. "Banned from the league for life, banned from ever even thinking of or seeing the NFL logo ever again," another added. "You absolutely should have. That footage would have been 100% worth your job, Blue," one fan claimed. "You don’t think NFL fans would’ve started a go fund me that would’ve set you up for life?" Blue could have lifted the mood in Indianapolis, but instead the Colts became the latest victim of a fierce Lions team that are charging towards the No. 1 seed in the NFC. The Lions won 24-6 on Sunday, as the running back duo of Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery took over. Gibbs had 90 yards off 21 carries and two touchdowns, with Montgomery finishing the game with 37 yards off eight carries and one touchdown. Lions quarterback Jared Goff went 26-for-36 and 269 yards, but it was the backs that made the difference in the red zone. It was tougher going for the Colts, as quarterback Anthony Richardson went 11-for-28 and 172 yards. Richardson had 61 rushing yards and also found wide receiver Michael Pittman Jr. on six occasions for 96 yards, but the remainder of the offense struggled to make an impact on the game. Want to watch more live sports? Peacock has your favorite sports, shows, and more all in one place. Peacock offers plans starting at $7.99 so you can stream live sports like NFL, Premier League, and Big Ten Football.ECU CB Shavon Revel Jr. declares for NFL draft

Elon Musk accused of censoring conservatives on X who disagree with him about immigrationConditions in abandoned mine are too dangerous for crew searching for Pennsylvania woman UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — An abandoned coal mine is too unstable and unsafe for rescuers looking for a 64-year-old Pennsylvania woman who may have been swallowed by a sinkhole. Authorities said Wednesday that the crumbling mine was complicating efforts and endangering the workers searching for Elizabeth Pollard. A state police spokesperson says the integrity of the mine has been compromised and that rescuers are reassessing their tactics to avoid putting themselves in danger. The search began early Tuesday, when Pollard’s family called police to say she had not been seen since going out Monday evening to look for her cat. WWE is seeking a bigger stage and Netflix, pushing for more live events, is providing it WWE will perform on a stage next month that could be vastly larger than its current home on cable television when it makes its “Raw” debut on Netflix. The sports entertainment company is moving to a platform with about 283 million subscribers worldwide as it departs its current home on the USA Network, which averaged 688,000 viewers in prime-time last year, according to the Nielsen company. For Netflix, onboarding the WWE is part of strategic move to air more live events on the heels of a hugely successful fight between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul that was viewed by more than 60 million people. Michigan court upholds light sentence for woman who killed dad in dispute over ride DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan Court of Appeals has declined to overturn a light jail sentence for a young woman who killed her father by burning him with a dangerous powder. Prosecutors said Megan Imirowicz was upset when her father couldn’t drive her to a hair appointment before her 18th birthday party. Imirowicz was sentenced to only a year in jail in 2023. She actually spent more than a year in custody because she was locked up before trial and while awaiting her punishment in suburban Detroit. Sumo wrestlers bring 1,500 years of tradition to London as the sport has an international moment LONDON (AP) — London’s Royal Albert Hall is preparing to host a different kind of spectacle: Sumo wrestling. Wrestlers put on an exhibition of heavyweight grappling to promote a tournament scheduled for next October. It marks only the second time an elite five-day tournament will be held outside Japan. The first was held in 1991 at the same venue. Organizers are hoping to whip up the kind of excitement that was generated three decades ago, when the deeply ritualistic sport attracted sell-out crowds and a national television audience. The end of an Eras tour approaches, marking a bittersweet moment for Taylor Swift fans NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The global phenomenon that is Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is coming to an end after the popstar performed more than 150 shows across five continents over nearly two years. Since launching the tour in 2023, Swift has shattered sales and attendance records. It's even created such an economic boom that the Federal Reserve took note. But for many who attended the concerts, and the millions more who eagerly watched on their screens, the tour also became a beacon of joy. It's become a chance not only to appreciate Swift’s expansive music career, but also celebrate the yearslong journey fans have taken with her. Jury revisits key videos in NYC subway chokehold death trial NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors have asked to review police and bystander video at the heart of the New York City chokehold manslaughter case against Daniel Penny. The request came during a second day of deliberations Wednesday. The jury asked for a second look at videos captured by the body cameras of officers who responded to the subway car where Penny grabbed hold of Jordan Neely in May 2023. Neely's agitated behavior and remarks were frightening passengers. Jurors also asked to revisit Penny's interview with detectives and a bystander's video of much of the roughly six-minute restraint. And the jury also requested to rehear part of a city medical examiner’s testimony. Penny's lawyers say his actions were justified. Relatives hunt for the missing after Guinea stadium crush amid fears official death toll is too low CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Kambaly Kouroumah was searching a local morgue for his teenage brother, Adama, who died after chaos erupted at a soccer game in southern Guinea’s Nzerekore city. Adama, 15, was among 56 people that officials said were killed in Sunday's crush, although rights groups reported a death toll nearly three times higher. Local media, rights groups and witnesses say security forces used tear gas to respond after fans began to throw stones to protest a referee's decision during the soccer game that was organized in honor of Guinea's junta leader, Col. Mamadi Doumbouya. Many of the dead were crushed as they tried to escape through the stadium gates, videos showed. Power shortages in Ecuador are melting away the future of a small town’s ice-cream industry SALCEDO, Ecuador (AP) — Ice-cream production in this quiet Ecuadorian town began in the mid-20th century in a convent for Franciscan nuns. The nuns sold their creamy popsicles in town to gather funds for the poor. But the people of Salcedo saw a business opportunity and began experimenting with new flavors and techniques, establishing a thriving popsicle industry that has made their small town famous among ice-cream lovers. But now, the South American nation is struggling with a relentless wave of power cuts that threaten the future of Salcedo’s ice-cream industry, melting away its dreams of a more prosperous future. Senegalese artisans in the spotlight as they exhibit for the first time at a prestigious art event DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — For the artistic and cultural elites of the West African nation of Senegal, the monthlong Dakar Biennale of Contemporary African Arts is a celebratory moment. But it wasn’t until this year that the local artisans in the Soumbedioune crafts market, just off the Corniche and at the doorstep on the Medina working-class neighborhood, realized what the Biennale was. Craftsmanship is deeply rooted in the country’s culture, but its role has declined in recent years. As living costs rise, many Senegalese opt for cheaper, Chinese-imported products. And those that can afford it buy Western clothes and furniture to mark their social status. Eminem's mother Debbie Nelson, whose rocky relationship fueled the rapper's lyrics, dies at age 69 Debbie Nelson, the mother of rapper Eminem whose rocky relationship with her son was known widely through his song lyrics, has died. She was 69. Eminem’s longtime representative Dennis Dennehy confirmed Nelson’s death in an email on Tuesday. He did not provide a cause of death, although Nelson had battled lung cancer. Nelson’s fraught relationship with her son, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, has been no secret since the Detroit rapper became a star. Nelson brought and settled two defamation lawsuits over Eminem’s statements about her in magazines and on radio talk shows. In her 2008 book, “My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem,” she attempted to set the record straight.

WE have had one experience with an extra-constitutional change of government. Many consider it a shining moment in Philippine history when Filipinos peacefully milled on EDSA and neighboring streets to cause the downfall of what they consider an abhorred authoritarian regime. Others are not too sure, believing it to be the working of an elitist clique that wanted to put an elitist government in power. Whatever may be our reminiscence of "People Power," the fact is that with it, we got a new Constitution and democratic institutions — at least by intent and according to the provisions of the Constitution — received their mandate from the sovereign people who ratified the Constitution. We took to the streets again in the time of Mr. Joseph Ejercito Estrada, but our Supreme Court ruled that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's assumption to the office of president — notwithstanding the debate about whether she was sworn in as "acting President" or "President" — was perfectly in accord with the Constitution. Register to read this story and more for free . Signing up for an account helps us improve your browsing experience. OR See our subscription options.ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — What's stoking the Denver Broncos' surprising surge is the growing connection between rookie quarterback Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton. Whenever the Broncos (7-5) need a clutch catch, a key flag or a timely touchdown, Sutton is usually the one delivering it like he did Sunday when he caught eight passes on 10 targets for 97 yards and a pair of touchdowns that sparked the Broncos' come-from-behind 29-19 win at Las Vegas. “Courtland played tremendous,” coach Sean Payton said. Again. “He’s just reliable,” Nix said. “He's just always there when you need him.” Sutton's size (6-foot-4 and 216 pounds) and experience (he's in his seventh NFL season) make him an ideal target and safety valve for the rookie QB whose confidence is growing by the week. “He’s smart. He’s savvy. He makes plays when the ball’s in the air,” Nix said. “You can trust him. When it’s up in the air, it’s his or nobody’s. It’s not going to be a pick.” Nix's first touchdown toss to Sutton was an 18-yarder that allowed the QB to break Marlin Briscoe's 1968 Denver rookie record of 14 TD passes, and the two connected again with 5:30 left to make it a two-score game. The Broncos trailed 13-9 at halftime and Nix said they knew they had to get the ball into Sutton's hands more in the second half after he had caught the only pass thrown his way in the first half (for 17 yards). “Didn’t target him (much) in the first half,” Nix said. “We come out and say, ‘Look, Courtland, this is your half.’ We take over the game. He goes for two touchdowns. That just kind of speaks for what he means to our team.” Sutton has been on a tear after since he wasn't targeted a single time in Denver's 33-10 win at New Orleans on Oct. 17. (Payton mentioned as recently as last week what an anomaly that game was because there was a heavy diet of plays for Sutton that just didn't pan out for various reasons.) In his six games before that goose egg, Sutton had 21 catches on 49 targets for 277 yards and a touchdown. In the five games since, he's caught 36 of the 48 balls thrown his way for 467 yards and three TDs. Plus, he threw a touchdown pass to Nix on a “Philly Special” at Baltimore in Week 9. “I think we're just scratching the surface,” Sutton said. Thanks in part to the chemistry between Nix and Sutton, the Broncos are in position for the seventh and final playoff spot entering December. The passing game, thanks to the Nix-Sutton connection. The running game. Javonte Williams had just 2 yards on eight carries and Audric Estime ran three times for 15 yards against the Raiders' run-heavy fronts and a steady diet of blitzes. Jaleel McLaughlin saved the day with seven carries for 44 yards. OLB Nik Bonitto. His 10 sacks make him the first Denver defender with double-digit sacks since 2018, when Von Miller did it. Once again, the Broncos' special teams, with the exception of K Wil Lutz, who hasn't missed a field goal attempt or extra point since his protection unit cratered at Kansas City three weeks ago and allowed the Chiefs to block what would have been the game-winning kick as time expired. On Sunday, the Raiders had a successful fake punt and a 59-yard kickoff return. Payton isn't saying much about the injuries to DE Zach Allen (heel) and CB Riley Moss (knee) except that to him they're not serious setbacks for either player. 2 — The Broncos are two games above .500 for the first time since starting the 2021 season with three wins. The Broncos host Cleveland (3-8) on Monday night ahead of their bye week. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

How major US stock indexes fared Friday, 12/6/2024Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala sells $484,616 in stock