The Israeli military justified its actions by claiming that the Syrian air defense bases posed a threat to Israeli security. According to Israeli officials, the Syrian government had been providing support to anti-Israeli militant groups, and the air defense bases were being used to launch attacks against Israeli territories.
The most important ideals of martyr Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim
Giants QB Tommy DeVito has a sore throwing arm after loss to BucsThe incident underscores the dangers of blind supplementation, a practice that has become increasingly prevalent in today's health and wellness landscape. With the rise of misinformation and pseudoscience surrounding dietary supplements, many individuals are turning to self-prescribing as a quick fix for various health concerns. However, the reality is that supplementing without proper guidance can have serious repercussions and pose significant risks to one's health.
AC Milan, known as the Rossoneri or Red and Blacks, have been at the center of transfer rumors recently, with reports suggesting that the club is on the verge of being sold. The potential buyer remains undisclosed at this point, raising questions about the future direction of the club. Milan, one of the most successful clubs in Italian football history, has endured a period of instability in recent years, and any change in ownership could have far-reaching implications for the team and its passionate fan base.
As the much-anticipated Spring Festival Gala draws near, recent news has emerged regarding the participation of six language programs in the gala's lineup. Among the notable figures involved in the review process are popular Chinese comedians Yue Yunpeng and Sun Yue.It is also worth noting that individual accolades are often influenced by team success. Inter Milan's struggles in recent years to challenge for the Serie A title may have impacted Martinez's chances of being considered for awards such as the Golden Boot. While individual brilliance is important, it is often the collective achievements of the team that attract the most attention from voters and selectors.Adventures on special teams made the Washington-Dallas showdown a clumsy affair, yet Joe Davis and Greg Olsen saw to it that the broadcast of the chaotic finish was pure gold. After Terry McLaurin weaved his way past five defenders for an 86-yard touchdown catch from Jayden Daniels to cut the Cowboys lead to 27-26 with 21 seconds left, Fox's No. 2 broadcast crew captured the chaos before admonishing the audience not to count on anything as a certainty on this helter-skelter afternoon. "Lightning strikes twice in Washington!" Davis shouted in an homage to Daniels' 52-yard Hail Mary to Noah Brown that stunned the Bears last month. "They dropped 11 guys in coverage," Olsen marveled. "If they just tackle him inbounds the game is over. I don't even know what to say. I'm absolutely speechless." Not for long he wasn't. Olsen quickly cautioned the audience that "Automatic" Austin Siebert had already missed an extra point along with a field goal Sunday in his return from a right hip injury. "Before anyone in Washington gets too fired up, remember, we've seen a missed PAT already," Olsen said. "Yeah, you hold your breath with anything special teams-related on this day," Davis agreed. After all, this was the first game in NFL history to feature two kickoff returns for touchdowns, two errant extra points and a blocked punt. In the 41-point fourth quarter that erased the game's snoozer status, Washington allowed KaVontae Turpin's 99-yard kickoff return for a score. Earlier, the Cowboys missed a field goal and saw another one blocked along with a punt. Sure enough, the snap was low ... the hold was better ... "It is no good!" Davis hollered. "And the worst special teams day in history has a fitting finish!" Actually, no. More ruckus remained. Siebert's onside kick bounced twice in front of safety Juanyeh Thomas, who gathered it in and returned it 43 yards for Dallas' second kickoff return for a touchdown. If Thomas takes a knee short of the goal line, he effectively seals the Cowboys' win. Instead, the score, while pushing Dallas' lead to 34-26, also left enough time for Daniels and the Commanders for a shot at yet another miracle touchdown. Austin Ekeler returned the kickoff to the Washington 36 and after a short gain, Daniels' Hail Mary was intercepted by Israel Mukuamu as time expired. And that's how what Davis called the "worst special teams day in NFL history" came to an end. "What a wild special teams moment of blocked punts, kicks, kickoff returns, blocked field goals," Commanders coach Dan Quinn said. In keeping with the not-so-special-teams theme, there were several foibles in the kicking game across the NFL in Week 12, where the Broncos gave up a 34-yard pass completion on a fake punt that Denver coach Sean Payton swore the team saw coming — and not as it was unfolding, either, but five days earlier. "We met Tuesday as a staff. It wasn't a matter of if, it was when they were going to run a fake punt," Payton said. "You're struggling as a team like this, we had it on the keys to victory, so credit them, they executed it." Thanks to AJ Cole's 34-yard pass to linebacker Divine Deablo that set up a second-quarter field goal, the reeling Raiders took a 13-9 advantage into the locker room, just their second halftime lead of the season. In the second half, the Raiders succumbed to surging rookie QB Bo Nix and veteran wide receiver Courtland Sutton in their 29-19 loss. That's seven straight losses for the Raiders, their longest skid in a decade. The Broncos (7-5), who blew a chance to beat the Chiefs in Week 10 when their 35-yard field goal try was blocked as time ran out, also allowed a 59-yard kickoff return that led to Las Vegas' only touchdown Sunday. The Texans (7-5) lost for the third time in four games after Ka'imi Fairbairn shanked a 28-yard field goal try that would have tied the Titans just after the two-minute warning. Like the Broncos, the Vikings (9-2) overcame a special teams blunder and escaped Soldier Field with a 30-27 overtime win against the Bears after allowing Chicago (4-7) to recover an onside kick with 21 seconds left. Caleb Williams followed with a 27-yard pass to D.J. Moore to set up Cairo Santos' tying 48-yard field goal as the fourth-quarter clock hit zeros.
NoneShoplifting ring stole $2M in cosmetics and clothes then resold them abroad, prosecutors say
Abortion has become slightly more common despite bans or deep restrictions in most Republican-controlled states, and the legal and political fights over its future are not over yet. It's now been two and a half years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and opened the door for states to implement bans. The policies and their impact have been in flux ever since the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Here's a look at data on where things stand: Overturning Roe and enforcing abortion bans has changed how woman obtain abortions in the U.S. But one thing it hasn't done is put a dent in the number of abortions being obtained. There have been slightly more monthly abortions across the country recently than there were in the months leading up to the June 2022 ruling, even as the number in states with bans dropped to near zero. “Abortion bans don’t actually prevent abortions from happening,” said Ushma Upadhyay, a public health social scientist at the University of California San Francisco. But, she said, they do change care. For women in some states, there are major obstacles to getting abortions — and advocates say that low-income, minority and immigrant women are least likely to be able to get them when they want. For those living in states with bans, the ways to access abortion are through travel or abortion pills. As the bans swept in, abortion pills became a bigger part of the equation. They were involved in about half the abortions before Dobbs. More recently, it’s been closer to two-thirds of them, according to research by the Guttmacher Institute. The uptick of that kind of abortion, usually involving a combination of two drugs, was underway before the ruling. But now, it's become more common for pill prescriptions to be made by telehealth. By the summer of 2024, about 1 in 10 abortions was via pills prescribed via telehealth to patients in states where abortion is banned. As a result, the pills are now at the center of battles over abortion access. This month, Texas sued a New York doctor for prescribing pills to a Texas woman via telemedicine. There's also an effort by Idaho, Kansas and Missouri to roll back their federal approvals and treat them as “controlled dangerous substances,” and a push for the federal government to start enforcing a 19th-century federal law to ban mailing them. Clinics have closed or halted abortions in states with bans. But a network of efforts to get women seeking abortions to places where they're legal has strengthened and travel for abortion is now common. The Guttmacher Institute found that more than twice as many Texas residents obtained abortion in 2023 in New Mexico as New Mexico residents did. And as many Texans received them in Kansas as Kansans. Abortion funds, which benefitted from “rage giving” in 2022, have helped pay the costs for many abortion-seekers. But some funds have had to cap how much they can give . Since the downfall of Roe, the actions of lawmakers and courts have kept shifting where abortion is legal and under what conditions. Here's where it stands now: Florida, the nation’s third most-populous state, began enforcing a ban on abortions after the first six weeks of pregnancy on May 1. That immediately changed the state from one that was a refuge for other Southerners seeking abortion to an exporter of people looking for them. There were about 30% fewer abortions there in May compared with the average for the first three months of the year. And in June, there were 35% fewer. While the ban is not unique, the impact is especially large. The average driving time from Florida to a facility in North Carolina where abortion is available for the first 12 weeks of pregnancy is more than nine hours, according to data maintained by Caitlin Myers, a Middlebury College economics professor. The bans have meant clinics closed or stopped offering abortions in some states. But some states where abortion remains legal until viability – generally considered to be sometime past 21 weeks of pregnancy , though there’s no fixed time for it – have seen clinics open and expand . Illinois, Kansas and New Mexico are among the states with new clinics. There were 799 publicly identifiable abortion providers in the U.S. in May 2022, the month before the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade. And by this November, it was 792, according to a tally by Myers, who is collecting data on abortion providers. But Myers says some hospitals that always provided some abortions have begun advertising it. So they’re now in the count of clinics – even though they might provide few of them. How hospitals handle pregnancy complications , especially those that threaten the lives of the women, has emerged as a major issue since Roe was overturned. President Joe Biden's administration says hospitals must offer abortions when they're needed to prevent organ loss, hemorrhage or deadly infections, even in states with bans. Texas is challenging the administration’s policy and the U.S. Supreme Court this year declined to take it up after the Biden administration sued Idaho. More than 100 pregnant women seeking help in emergency rooms and were turned away or left unstable since 2022, The Associated Press found in an analysis of federal hospital investigative records. Among the complaints were a woman who miscarried in the lobby restroom of Texas emergency room after staff refused to see her and a woman who gave birth in a car after a North Carolina hospital couldn't offer an ultrasound. The baby later died. “It is increasingly less safe to be pregnant and seeking emergency care in an emergency department,” Dara Kass, an emergency medicine doctor and former U.S. Health and Human Services official told the AP earlier this year. Since Roe was overturned, there have been 18 reproductive rights-related statewide ballot questions. Abortion rights advocates have prevailed on 14 of them and lost on four. In the 2024 election , they amended the constitutions in five states to add the right to abortion. Such measures failed in three states: In Florida, where it required 60% support; in Nebraska, which had competing abortion ballot measures; and in South Dakota, where most national abortion rights groups did support the measure. AP VoteCast data found that more than three-fifths of voters in 2024 supported abortion being legal in all or most cases – a slight uptick from 2020. The support came even as voters supported Republicans to control the White House and both houses of Congress. Associated Press writers Linley Sanders, Amanda Seitz and Laura Ungar contributed to this article.
NoneSwifties live-streaming Eras Tour concerts say they’re part of a ‘community’
Similarly, in the stock market, the principles of countercyclical adjustments are being applied to address volatility and prevent market crashes. Through measures such as circuit breakers, trading halts, and regulatory oversight, authorities seek to ensure that market participants act in a responsible and stable manner. By introducing mechanisms that can temporarily pause trading or limit extreme price movements, regulators aim to protect investors and maintain confidence in the financial system.
A stroke changed a teacher’s life. How a new electrical device is helping her move
In the aftermath of the Israeli military's destruction of Syria's air defense bases, the future remains uncertain and fraught with challenges. The repercussions of this latest military action are likely to reverberate for weeks and months to come, as the region grapples with the consequences of yet another deadly confrontation. Only time will tell how the situation will unfold and whether a path to peace can be found amidst the chaos and destruction.Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler, who was aggressive in his oversight of cryptocurrencies and other financial markets, will step down from his post on Jan. 20. Gensler pushed changes that he said protected investors, but the industry and many Republicans bristled at what they saw as overreach. President-elect Donald Trump had promised during his campaign that he would remove Gensler. But Gensler on Thursday announced that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated. Bitcoin has jumped 40% since Trump’s victory. It hit new highs Thursday and was nearing $100,000. Bitcoin moved notably higher still after Gensler's resignation was announced. Gensler's stance on the rise of cryptocurrencies was captured during a speech he gave during the first year of his chairmanship in 2021 where he described the market as “the Wild West.” “This asset class is rife with fraud, scams, and abuse in certain applications,” he said in a speech at the Aspen Security Forum. “There’s a great deal of hype and spin about how crypto assets work. In many cases, investors aren’t able to get rigorous, balanced, and complete information.” Under Gensler, the SEC brought actions against players in the crypto industry for fraud , wash trading and other violations, including as recently as last month when the commission brought fraud charges against three companies purporting to be market makers, along with nine individuals for trying to manipulate various crypto markets. Yet access to cryptocurrencies became more widespread under Gensler. In January, the SEC approved exchange-traded funds that track the spot price of bitcoin. With such ETFs, investors could get easier access to bitcoin without the huge overlays required to buy it directly. Gensler, however, acknowledged the SEC had denied earlier, similar applications for such ETFs, including Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, among the first to eventually be approved by the SEC. “Circumstances, however, have changed,” Gensler said, pointing to a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia that said the SEC failed to adequately explain its reasoning in rejecting Grayscale’s proposal. Even there, Gensler made sure not to endorse the merits of bitcoin. He pointed to how ETFs that hold precious metals are tracking prices of things that have “consumer and industrial users, while in contrast bitcoin is primarily a speculative, volatile asset that’s also used for illicit activity including ransomware, money laundering, sanction evasion, and terrorist financing.” Gensler was tested early in his tenure with the rise of the meme stock phenomenon that shocked the financial system in early 2021. Earlier this year, the SEC under Gensler pushed Wall Street to speed up how long it takes for trades of stocks to settle, one of the areas where the commission’s staff recommended changes following the reckoning created by GameStop , one of the first meme stocks. In the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, hordes of smaller-pocketed and novice investors suddenly piled into the stock of the struggling video-game retailer. During the height of the frenzy, several brokerages barred customers from buying GameStop after the clearinghouse that settles their trades demanded more cash to cover the increased risk created by its highly volatile price. In May 2024, new rules meant broker-dealers have to fully settle their trades within one business day of the trade date, down from the previous two. Critics of the SEC under Gensler have called many of the agency's proposals overly burdensome. The investment industry, for example, is pushing against a proposal to force some advisers and companies disclose more about their environmental, social and governance practices, otherwise known as ESG. Critics say the proposal is overly complex and increases the risk of investor confusion, while imposing unnecessary burdens and costs on funds. On Thursday, Gensler stood by the SEC's track record under his direction. “The staff and the Commission are deeply mission-driven, focused on protecting investors, facilitating capital formation, and ensuring that the markets work for investors and issuers alike," Gensler said in prepared remarks. “The staff comprises true public servants." Gensler previously served as Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, leading the Obama Administration’s reform of the $400 trillion swaps market. He also was senior advisor to U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes in writing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and was undersecretary of the Treasury for Domestic Finance and assistant secretary of the Treasury from 1997-2001.
The opinion editor at Die Welt has resigned after the conservative German newspaper printed an article from Elon Musk justifying his support for the hard-Right AfD. Eva Marie Kogel said she handed in her resignation after the newspaper went to print on Friday. In his article, said Germany’s traditional parties had failed by delivering economic stagnation, social unrest and erosion of national identity. Mr Musk, who was born in South Africa and became a US citizen in 2002, said Germany had become “comfortable with mediocrity” and incited cultural tensions by opening its borders to a large number of migrants. In a series of posts on X in the run up to Christmas, Mr Musk toted his support for AfD, which he deemed the “only hope for Germany”, and questioned the party’s categorisation of far Right. The Tesla founder’s endorsement of AfD in December prompted , the German chancellor, to quip that Germany’s free speech allowed multi-billionaires to say things that were incorrect and did not contain good political advice. Writing in Die Welt, Mr Musk said: “The AfD can save Germany from becoming a shadow of its former self,” adding that the party could spur economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation. The Tesla founder said he believed he had the right to speak openly about his political beliefs because he has made significant investments in the nation’s industrial and technological industries. Tesla has built a gigafactory in Brandenburg, the first such site for the electric carmaker in Europe. In the article, Mr Musk sounded the alarm over Germany’s decision to open its borders to a large number of migrants, which he said was done with humanitarian intentions but had led to a breakdown in social cohesion. “The AfD is committed to a controlled immigration policy that prioritises integration and the preservation of German culture and security,” he wrote, adding: “This is not about xenophobia, but about ensuring that Germany does not lose its identity in the pursuit of globalisation. “A nation must preserve its core values and cultural heritage in order to remain strong and united.” The incoming head of the inaugural US (Doge) also expressed admiration for AfD’s drive to deregulate the market, reduce bureaucracy and lower taxes. He described Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power to rely on fossil fuels and renewable energy as “costly” and “naive”, claiming the nation does not have sufficient battery storage to ensure stability of electricity supply, and endorsed AfD’s drive to encourage critical thinking in education rather than indoctrination. Mr Musk took issue with the AfD being branded as “far Right”, instead deeming the party advocates of political realism without the political correctness. Pointing to Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, who has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka, he said: “Does that sound like Hitler to you?”, adding: “To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: Don’t be fooled by the label attached to it.” The article was commissioned by Mathias Döpfner, the head of the newspaper publisher Axel Springer, and was met with outrage from the newspaper’s editorial committee, according to Der Spiegel newspaper. The article was published with a rebuttal by Jan Philipp Burgard, Die Welt’s editor-in-chief, who stated that while Mr Musk’s diagnosis of Germany’s ills may be correct, his judgment that only AfD could save Germany was “fatally wrong”. Mr Burgard called attention to AfD’s desire for rapprochement with Russia, with the party calling for a restoration of trade and lifting of sanctions on Moscow. He also warned of AfD’s intention to appease Beijing and leave the European Union, deeming the latter a “catastrophe”. “The AfD is not just Alice Weidel, but also ,” Mr Burgard wrote, before scalding the infamous leader of AfD’s regional branch in Thuringia for his repeated use of banned Nazi slogans and salutes. The editor-in-chief pointed out that a court ruling allows Höcke to be described as an extremist. The history teacher turned politician has previously dismissed Berlin’s Holocaust memorial as a “monument of shame” and has called for a “thousand year future” for Germany. While Mr Burgard conceded that “Germany is indeed struggling with out-of-control immigration”, he discredits the AfD’s remigration plans as “unrealistic”.
Surveillance tech advances by Biden could aid in Trump’s promised crackdown on immigration
Finally, after five long days in the wilderness, a rescue team located the pair and brought them back to safety. The elderly woman was treated for mild dehydration and exhaustion, but her spirit remained unbroken, buoyed by the love and care of her devoted granddaughter. Their story of survival and resilience serves as a reminder of the enduring power of family ties and the unfailing support that can be found in the most unexpected of places.As NATO prepares for its upcoming summit, scheduled to take place later this year, the issue of burden-sharing and defense spending is likely to remain a contentious topic of discussion. The alliance faces a dual challenge of adapting to new security threats while grappling with internal divisions over financial commitments and strategic priorities. The Trump administration's insistence on a more equitable distribution of costs could lead to a renegotiation of the alliance's financial framework and a potential restructuring of defense commitments among member states.