bookmaker arcaea Muscat Nights Festival has entered a new era spreading over seven locations for the first time. Al Qurum Natural Park, a floral paradise with over a million blooms, has become a key highlight of this year’s celebrations. In an interview with Oman TV, Ahmed bin Mohammed al Humaidi, Chairman of Muscat Municipality, stated, “For the first time, the festival is being held in as many as seven locations, offering a variety of activities, including sports, entertainment and cultural events.” Muscat Nights Festival 2024 features numerous entertainment and tourism events spread across Amerat Park, Al Naseem Public Park, Oman Automobile Association, Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, Al Hail Beach and Wadi al Khoud, besides Al Qurum Natural Park, several cultural centres and shopping malls. These locations were selected to ensure accessibility for residents and visitors throughout the capital. Humaidi informed that a global element has been incorporated in the festival to enhance its appeal. Amerat Park is hosting ‘Hybrid Show’, organised by an international company, features cutting-edge technology and creating a unique experience for visitors. The flower festival at Al Qurum Natural Park is being held of the first time at Muscat Nights Festival. Additionally, Sur al Hadeed Beach is hosting a range of sports activities, adding to the festival’s diverse offerings. Elaborating on the activities at Sur al Hadeed Beach, Humaidi said it includes a wide range of activities – beach soccer and volleyball competitions, fire performances, giant chess board matches, graffiti art, live music shows and service kiosks offering various amenities throughout the festival ground. “Spread over 4,000sqm, the Hybrid Show blends live performances with modern digital technologies, such as augmented and virtual reality, to create an unprecedented interactive experience for the audience.” Humaidi further added, “We have designated areas at the seven locations for visitors to take photos and enjoy the events.” Highlighting the involvement of small and medium enterprises and productive families, Humaidi said, “Over 900 SMEs and enterprising families are participating in the festival to present their products and services. The festival provides a significant platform for these businesses to showcase their offerings to nearly one million anticipated visitors.” On the organisational front, Muscat Municipality has deployed more than 700 personnel at the festival venues to manage the event. Humaidi emphasised the importance of engaging youth in the festival’s activities, stating, “We are keen to involve young people in an organised manner to ensure a unique and integrated experience for visitors. We also aim to engage students who need work experience, helping them transition into the labour market immediately after graduation.” According to Humaidi, to support this initiative Muscat Municipality will collaborate with educational institutions to provide certificates of experience to participating students, with plans to expand this programme in future festivals.

Wingstop Announces Additional $500 Million Share Repurchase Authorization

Luigi Nicholas Mangione, the suspect in the fatal shooting of a healthcare executive in New York City, apparently was living a charmed life: the grandson of a wealthy real estate developer, valedictorian of his elite Baltimore prep school and with degrees from one of the nation's top private universities. Friends at an exclusive co-living space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Hawaii where the 26-year-old Mangione once lived widely considered him a “great guy,” and pictures on his social media accounts show a fit, smiling, handsome young man on beaches and at parties. Now, investigators in New York and Pennsylvania are working to piece together why Mangione may have diverged from this path to make the violent and radical decision to gun down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in a brazen attack on a Manhattan street. The killing sparked widespread discussions about corporate greed, unfairness in the medical insurance industry and even inspired folk-hero sentiment toward his killer. But Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro sharply refuted that perception after Mangione's arrest on Monday when a customer at a McDonald's restaurant in Pennsylvania spotted Mangione eating and noticed he resembled the shooting suspect in security-camera photos released by New York police. “In some dark corners, this killer is being hailed as a hero. Hear me on this, he is no hero,” Shapiro said. “The real hero in this story is the person who called 911 at McDonald’s this morning.” Mangione's family and upbringing Mangione comes from a prominent Maryland family. His grandfather, Nick Mangione, who died in 2008, was a successful real estate developer. One of his best-known projects was Turf Valley Resort, a sprawling luxury retreat and conference center outside Baltimore that he purchased in 1978. The Mangione family also purchased Hayfields Country Club north of Baltimore in 1986. On Monday, Baltimore County police officers blocked off an entrance to the property, which public records link to Luigi Mangione’s parents. Reporters and photographers gathered outside the entrance. The father of 10 children, Nick Mangione prepared his five sons — including Luigi Mangione’s father, Louis Mangione — to help manage the family business, according to a 2003 Washington Post report. Nick Mangione had 37 grandchildren, including Luigi, according to the grandfather's obituary. Luigi Mangione’s grandparents donated to charities through the Mangione Family Foundation, according to a statement from Loyola University commemorating Nick Mangione’s wife’s death in 2023. They donated to various causes, including Catholic organizations, colleges and the arts. One of Luigi Mangione’s cousins is Republican Maryland state legislator Nino Mangione, a spokesman for the lawmaker’s office confirmed. “Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest,” Mangione’s family said in a statement posted on social media by Nino Mangione. “We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved.” Mangione's education and work history Mangione, who was valedictorian of his elite Maryland prep school, earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in computer science in 2020 from the University of Pennsylvania, a university spokesman told The Associated Press. He learned to code in high school and helped start a club at Penn for people interested in gaming and game design, according to a 2018 story in Penn Today, a campus publication. His social media posts suggest he belonged to the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. They also show him taking part in a 2019 program at Stanford University, and in photos with family and friends at the Jersey Shore and in Hawaii, San Diego, Puerto Rico, and other destinations. The Gilman School, from which Mangione graduated in 2016, is one of Baltimore’s elite prep schools. The children of some of the city’s wealthiest and most prominent residents, including Orioles legend Cal Ripken Jr., have attended the school. Its alumni include sportswriter Frank Deford and former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington. In his valedictory speech, Luigi Mangione described his classmates’ “incredible courage to explore the unknown and try new things.” Mangione took a software programming internship after high school at Maryland-based video game studio Firaxis, where he fixed bugs on the hit strategy game Civilization 6, according to a LinkedIn profile. Firaxis' parent company, Take-Two Interactive, said it would not comment on former employees. He more recently worked at the car-buying website TrueCar, but has not worked there since 2023, the head of the Santa Monica, California-based company confirmed to the AP. Time in Hawaii and reports of back pain From January to June 2022, Mangione lived at Surfbreak, a “co-living” space at the edge of touristy Waikiki in Honolulu. Like other residents of the shared penthouse catering to remote workers, Mangione underwent a background check, said Josiah Ryan, a spokesperson for owner and founder R.J. Martin. “Luigi was just widely considered to be a great guy. There were no complaints,” Ryan said. “There was no sign that might point to these alleged crimes they’re saying he committed.” At Surfbreak, Martin learned Mangione had severe back pain from childhood that interfered with many aspects of his life, including surfing, Ryan said. “He went surfing with R.J. once but it didn’t work out because of his back,” Ryan said, but noted that Mangione and Martin often went together to a rock-climbing gym. Mangione left Surfbreak to get surgery on the mainland, Ryan said, then later returned to Honolulu and rented an apartment. An image posted to a social media account linked to Mangione showed what appeared to be an X-ray of a metal rod and multiple screws inserted into someone's lower spine. Martin stopped hearing from Mangione six months to a year ago. An X account linked to Mangione includes recent posts about the negative impact of smartphones on children; healthy eating and exercise habits; psychological theories; and a quote from Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti about the dangers of becoming “well-adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” Police report a darker turn Mangione likely was motivated by his anger at what he called “parasitic” health insurance companies and a disdain for corporate greed, according to a law enforcement bulletin obtained by AP. He wrote that the U.S. has the most expensive healthcare system in the world and that the profits of major corporations continue to rise while “our life expectancy” does not, according to the bulletin, based on a review of the suspect’s handwritten notes and social media posts. He appeared to view the targeted killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO as a symbolic takedown, asserting in his note that he is the “first to face it with such brutal honesty,” the bulletin said. Mangione called “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski a “political revolutionary” and may have found inspiration from the man who carried out a series of bombings while railing against modern society and technology, the document said. Associated Press reporters Lea Skene in Baltimore; Jennifer Sinco Kelleher in Honolulu; Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; and Michael Kunzelman in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a private research laboratory, is located on Long Island, New York, where I live. Its outrageous history is detailed in a forthcoming book , “Long Island and the Legacy of Eugenics: Station of Intolerance.” The book, by Mark A. Torres, an attorney as well as an author, will be released by The History Press on January 21st. Torres also wrote the 2021 book “Long Island Migrant Labor Camps: Dust for Blood,” an examination of the plight of migrant farmworkers on Long Island, published, too, by The History Press. Torres is general counsel of Teamsters Local 810, a union that covers Long Island, and as an attorney has long specialized in labor and employment law in federal and state courts. He is also a professor at Hofstra University. As an author, he excels at in-depth research. Earlier this year the Association of Public Historians of New York awarded Torres its Joseph F. Meany Award (named for former New York State Historian Joseph F. Meany, Jr.) for his book on migrant farmworker camps on Long Island. Most Long Island residents know little about the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory although it is off a major highway on Long Island, Route 25A, on 110 acres, and currently employs more than a thousand people. I’ve received an advance copy of Torres’ book. It begins with an “Author’s Note” in which Torres explains: “True to my roots as an author of Long Island history, I have always strived to present topics from the oft-neglected local perspective. Thus, this book is not intended to merely serve as a broad retelling of the history of eugenics. Instead, it focuses on investigating the local origins, characters and stratagems employed by the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor which, for nearly three decades, served as the global headquarters of the eugenics movement.” He relates how his investigative “journey led me to study the archival records at numerous facilities, including the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and Archives...the Rockefeller Archive in Sleepy Hollow, New York; the American Philosophical Institute in Philadelphia; Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri; and the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Silver Springs, Maryland...” “The information I amassed from these meticulously preserved archives provided sharp insight into the origins, inspiration and machinations of the American eugenics movement, while never losing focus on the fact that it all emanated from a small hamlet on Long Island.” “Through it all, I came to understand how eugenics became such an accepted and normalized part of society in the United States and throughout the world during the twentieth century,” writes Torres. He goes on how the book includes “the downfall of the Eugenics Record Office” (part of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory between 1910 and 1939) “and the ultimate discrediting of eugenics as a scientific field. The final section also explores the enduring and cruel legacy of eugenics.” “The quest to perfect our species was not a new one,” Torres writes. “However, the problem with such aspirations: Who decides the standards of perfection? And, more importantly, what is to be done with those who fall below the arbitrarily created standards.” Then the book starts with the 1946 trial in Nuremberg, Germany: United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. Brandt, who was “the personal physician of Adolph Hitler,” and other doctors were put on trial in the aftermath of World War II for crimes against humanity, he relates, in connection with the Nazi “euthanasia program.” “Brandt and six others were convicted, sentenced to death and executed. Astonishingly, the information that Brandt and his cohorts so desperately relied on for their defense was not derived from Nazi propaganda,” says Torres. “Instead, their sources came directly from a report published in 1914 by the Eugenics Record Office in Cold Spring Harbor, New York.” “What connection,” asks Torres, “did an administrative office four thousand miles away in a small town on Long Island have with the Nazi regime that plotted and carried out the systematic torture and murder of millions of human beings based on race and disability?” “The connection was eugenics: the pseudoscience that dominated much of the twentieth century and was premised on the racist, classist and misguided belief that mental, physical and behavioral traits of human beings were all inheritable and must be eliminated to save the human race.” “Although it was promoted as cutting-edge science, eugenics was a social philosophy that aimed to develop a master race of human beings with the purest blood and the most desirable hereditary traits,” the book continues. A “component” of eugenics was “’negative eugenics’ which aimed to discourage or outright prevent the reproduction of people who were declared genetically unfit. Negative genetics was driven by the premise that society would dramatically improve if the millions of Americans who were deemed mentally, physically or morally undesirable were ‘eliminated from the human stock’ by means of segregation, sterilization and even euthanasia. This included the ‘feebleminded,’ paupers, criminals, epileptics, the insane, the deformed, the congenitally weak, the blind and the deaf. While human heredity would not begin to be understood by scientists until the 1960s, the social prejudice and practice of eugenics dominated scientific objectivity for more than half a century.” “The legacy of eugenics is undeniably cruel and enduring,” writes Torres. “In the United States alone, more than sixty thousand forced sterilizations were carried out in more than half the states....A multitude of people throughout the country were classified as undesirable and confined to psychiatric centers during their childbearing years. A bevy of marriage restriction and eugenic sterilization laws were enacted for the purpose of preventing the procreation of the unfit. Eugenically driven immigration laws barring the entry of immigrants from many countries into the United States endured for years. Globally, eugenics thrived in countries like Argentina, Canada, China, Japan and Norway, and Nazi Germany used it to commit unimaginable atrocities. In some ways, the ideals of eugenics persist today.” “Despite its global appeal,” Torres goes on, “eugenics was truly made in America, and the epicenter of the movement was not found in some laboratory or government facility. Instead, the science was developed at the Eugenics Record Office...in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island.” Before the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory became “the global center of the eugenics movement,” eugenics had roots in England, relates Torres. He notes how in 1851 in England, Herbert Spencer penned a book “Social Statics” that “first publicized the phrase survival of the fittest.” And “less than a decade later, Charles Darwin popularized the phrase survival of the fittest in his seminal work “The Origin of the Species.” Yet another Englishman, Francis Galton, a cousin of Darwin, then authored a book “Hereditary Genus” in which he “suggested that the breeding of the best people would evolve mankind into a super species...” “The founding fathers of eugenics in England,” writes Torres, “had formulated the theoretical concepts of human hereditary research. It was only a matter of time before it caught on in the United States, and of the many individuals and groups who helped establish eugenics from theory to practice, none was more influential than an American biologist Charles Davenport who was directly responsible for the establishment and operation of the Eugenics Record Office, which for more than three decades would serve as the eugenics capital of the world.” From the Eugenics Record Office, part of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, “Davenport also led the movement that would ultimately springboard eugenics into a global phenomenon.” “In 1902, the Carnegie Institute of Washington was founded, and Davenport immediately began to lobby the group to invest in the establishment of a center for genetics at Cold Spring Harbor,” Torres continues. And “the forces were beginning to align for the formation of the American eugenics movement, and Charles Davenport would be at the center of it all.” Davenport “developed a plan to collect hereditary information from a multitude of families in order to prove that evolution worked in human beings the way it worked in animals and plants.” In the end, eugenics was thoroughly discredited, as Torres relates in the last chapter of his book, titled “A Reckoning.” “The rise of eugenics was not a random phenomenon,” the chapter begins. “Eugenics presented as a cutting-edge science driven by utopian ideals for the betterment of humanity. It was buoyed by a continuous flow of financial support from wealthy and progressive-minded donors and fully embraced by the leading thinkers of the time before settling into the very fabric of the United States and societies throughout the world. Ultimately, eugenics was discredited as a science and exposed as nothing more than a social philosophy used as a slogan for intolerance, racism, bigotry and classism. It was essentially a means for the wealthy to assert their dominance over the poor, which has been an unfortunate and recurring theme throughout all of human history.” “It took many years for the scientific and corporate communities to accept responsibility for their part in eugenics,” says Torres. Indeed, it was only in 2020 that the president of the Carnegie Institution for Science “issued a formal apology for the group’s support for eugenics.” The statement: “There is no excuse, then or now, for our institution’s previous willingness to empower researchers who sought to pervert scientific inquiry to justify their own racist and ableist prejudices. Our support of eugenics made us complicit in driving decades of brutal and unconscionable actions by the governments in the United States and around the world.” Only in 2023 did the American Society of Human Genetics issue a statement declaring that it “seeks to reckon with, and sincerely apologizes for, its involvement in and silence of the misuse of human genetics to justify and contribute to injustice in all forms,” he continues. Torres closes his book by stating: “In the nearly three decades of its operation, the Eugenics Record Office served as the ultimate vessel to fortify and amplify the pseudoscience called eugenics and transformed it into a global phenomenon. Everything that emanated from this facility served to dominate the poor, the weak and the sick, who were deemed the defectives of society and subject them to mass levels of institutionalization, sterilization, immigration restrictions and even euthanasia. Later, in the hands of the Nazi regime, eugenics was openly used as a scientific excuse to torture and murder a multitude of innocent human beings.” “The Eugenics Record Office and those who directly operated, controlled and funded it are fully deserving of the blame for the entire eugenics movement and the dire atrocities committed under the banner of this false science,” he says. “While we must continue to honor the seemingly countless victims, we must also provide public discourse and educational programs on the subject, for if we fail to do so, we may be in danger of repeating this dark history.” Between the start and end of his book, Torres documents the horrors committed in the name of eugenics—and how an institution on Long Island was the base for it. He names the names—prominent names—including those in government and business in the U.S. who pushed eugenics. “All movements require the support and participation of people with strong public influence” and “there were few greater endorsements than that of president of the United States of America. In fact,” he notes, “every president” of the U.S. from Theodore Roosevelt to Herbert Hoover “was a member of a eugenics organization, publicly endorsed eugenic laws, or signed eugenic legislation without voicing opposition.” As for Roosevelt, whose ”summer White House” at Sagamore Hill was a “mere six miles from the ERO facility in Cold Spring Harbor,” Roosevelt wrote a letter to Davenport asserting: “Someday we will realize that the prime duty of the good citizen of the right type [is] to leave his blood behind him in the world; that that we have no business to perpetuate citizens of the wrong type.” He tells of John Harvey Kellogg, a doctor who with his brother founded the Kellogg company that developed corn flakes becoming a “staunch ally of Charles Davenport and a full-fledged eugenicist....In 1914, he organized the First Race Betterment Foundation Conference in Battle Creek, Michigan, with the stated purpose of establishing the foundations for the creation of a super race.” On its website, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in a section labeled its “History” has an essay on a “historical perspective on genetics” headlined: “Good genes, bad science.” It begins relating how in the early 1900s “the bogus concept of hereditary criminality and a made-up disease known as feeblemindedness became part of some scientists’ so-called studies of genetics. Ideas such as these were the core of the American eugenics movement....in which science got mixed up with racial dogma. Among the results was the destruction of thousands of people’s ability to pass on their ‘defective’ genes through forced sterilization programs.” “Many of Hitler’s beliefs were directly inspired by the eugenics books he read while he was in prison,” writes Torres. (Hitler was jailed for leading in 1923 the Beer Hall Putsch, an attempted coup in Munich involving members of his Nazi Party. Convicted of treason, he was sentenced to five years in jail and served nine months.) Hitler “admired,” Torres continues, “the policies of the American eugenics program, including the efforts that led to the passage of strict immigration laws in the United States.” In 1933, he “seized power,” and “eugenics presented Hitler with a...globally accepted science to support his sinister plans. In July 1933, Germany enacted the ‘Law for the Prevention of Defective Progeny,’ the first eugenic sterilization law in the country....The law also established approximately two hundred genetic courts and managed anyone suspected of having a genetic defect to be reported to the authorities.” A publication put out by the Eugenics Record Office, Eugenical News, featured the law “proudly.” Soon, “German eugenicists began to formulate definitions of Jewishness. Hitler insisted that Jews of all degrees to be identified, including those with at least one drop of Jewish blood.” The “methodology was fully inspired by the family pedigree system created at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory more than two decades before,” writes Torres. With the mass sending of Jews and others to death camps, Hitler “directed...doctors at different concentration camps to conduct a wide range of eugenics-based research.” “Over time, the world began to learn of the Nazis’ atrocities,” writes Torres. “In 1936, the Rockefeller Foundation finally became reluctant to fund any further eugenics-based programs, and nearly all funding ended when the fighting erupted in 1939. Unfortunately, Nazi eugenics programs had already benefited from the foundation’s funding, and the fully developed program continued throughout the war.” The book includes a chapter on the impact of eugenic advocates on U.S. immigration law, titled “’Scientific Racism’ and the Anti-Immigration Movement.” Torres writes about how Harry Laughlin, superintendent of the Eugenics Record Office from its inception to closure, sent a report to the U.S. Congress in 1922 labeling certain immigrants “human waste.” Writes Torres: “Page after page, the report was rife with racial and ethnic slurs and detailed statistics regarding feeblemindedness, insanity, crime, various forms of illness and deformity and ‘all types of social inadequacy.’” Laughlin testified before Congress in 1922 asserting: “These degeneracies and hereditary handicaps are inherent in the blood.” Before Congress again, in 1924, “elaborate charts” were displayed by Laughlin “promoting the link between the so-called inferior races and immoral conduct.” “As a direct result of Laughlin’s tireless efforts, which were driven by his eugenic ideals coupled with lawmakers’ growing racial animus against immigrants, the House and Senate passed the Immigration Act of 1924,” writes Torres. “The law imposed even stricter quotas on immigrants from all non-Nordic nations. For example, the quota on immigration from Italy was dramatically reduced from forty-two thousand per year to just four thousand.” In the U.S., laws were passed to mandate sterilization based on the claims of eugenics. Torres focuses on a 1927 U.S. Supreme Court 8-to-1 decision upholding a “request by the State of Virginia to forcefully sterilize nineteen-year-old Carrie Buck based on a eugenics diagnosis.” She was determined to be “feebleminded.” The ruling, written by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. “has never been reversed,” writes Torres. “It is an enduring legacy left by the Eugenics Record Office and a direct byproduct of the ERO’s work. In the wake of the decision, the number of sterilizations across the country began to grow exponentially.” The Eugenics Record Office activities also included research close to home, “in local communities on Long Island and throughout New York State.” It got involved with psychiatric institutions on Long Island including Kings Park Psychiatric Center, Central Islip State Hospital and Pilgrim State Hospital in Brentwood. The book includes how “Native American reservations on Long Island were targeted” by Davenport and his followers including what is now the Shinnecock Indian Nation and the Unkechaug Reservation, both on Long Island. He tells of how Dr. John Strong, the author of numerous books on Native Americans and long a professor of history at Southampton College on Long Island, said “the eugenically biased data derived from these studies was used by the [U.S.] Bureau of Indian Affairs...to the detriment of the Native American population.” Torres in an interview emphasized how eugenics “was not a fringe movement. It was the rage of the age. It was widely embraced.” Torres writes of how eugenics was embraced by academia in the U.S. “During much of the early to mid-twentieth century, eugenics was taught....at the most prestigious academic institutions in the country, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Princeton and Yale.” He cites a 1916 ERO report stating that 254 colleges taught courses about eugenics. He writes: “At Boston University, eugenics was taught to students at the School of Theology.” New York University, Columbia and Barnard “each offered a eugenics-based course....Other New York colleges that taught eugenics” that are listed include Adelphi, Cornell, Colgate, Farmingdale, Fordham, Syracuse University and Vassar. Also, he notes, “eugenics was a regularly offered course in the biology department at San Francisco State University from 1916 to 1951.” The year 1951 was decades after the Eugenics Records Office at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was shut down. In recent years, what eugenics is about has continued as an issue. In 2007, Dr. James Watson, chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a Nobel Prize winner, was relieved of his post after saying in an interview with the London Times that that there was an intelligence gap between Blacks and whites and this accounted for many of problems in Africa. In 2019, the laboratory stripped Watson of titles he still held including chancellor emeritus after he appeared on a PBS documentary “American Masters: Decoding Watson,” and, asked if he changed his views, said: “No. Not at all....there’s a difference on the average between Blacks and whites on I.Q tests. I would say the difference is....genetic.” Last month, Laura Helmuth, editor-in-chief of Scientific American, resigned after complaints about comments she made including, online, that “Trump’s racist rants are straight-up eugenics.” An article in the magazine in October scored Donald Trump’s statements about immigrants, its headline “Trump’s Racist Rants against Immigrants Hide under the Language of Eugenics.” Helmuth from 2016 to 2018 was president of the National Association of Science Writers. And this month, New York magazine featured an article headlined: “A Rift in the Family, My in-laws gave me a book by a eugenicist. Our relationship is over.”

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By Jack Phillips Contributing Writer A 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Northern California on Thursday, according to U.S. officials, triggering a brief tsunami warning. The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the tremor hit about 60 miles west-southwest of Ferndale, a city located about 100 miles south of the California-Oregon border. A tsunami warning was issued in the immediate aftermath of the quake, but was lifted about 50 minutes later. It’s not clear if any damage or injuries were reported in connection to the earthquake. The National Weather Service’s San Francisco office had issued a warning on social media about possible tsunami impacts: “We are still waiting for magnitudes of water rise.” The earthquake struck at a depth of around 6 miles at approximately 10:44 a.m. local time. It was first preliminarily registered as having a magnitude of 6.6, but the USGS upgraded it to 7.0 a short while later. Several aftershocks of smaller magnitudes struck in the area off the coast after the initial 7.0-magnitude temblor, according to the USGS. About three minutes after the 7.0 earthquake struck, a 2.5-magnitude earthquake also hit inland around 200 miles to the southeast in Cobb, located in Central California, the USGS reported. The Cobb tremor was revised down from 5.8 by the USGS. Residents in Northern California and California’s Central Valley reported feeling the tremor, according to the agency’s website. Users on social media platform X also reported shaking and other impacts. Some users also posted screenshots of National Weather Service tsunami warning messages they had received through their phones before it was rescinded. “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters,” the notice said. “Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.” Deanne Criswell, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has been briefed on the quake and is “monitoring the situation” in California, an official confirmed. “Please listen to local officials and heed their warnings,” FEMA spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg wrote on X. The Bay Area Rapid Transit, which runs metro trains across the San Francisco and Oakland areas, said that it is experiencing service disruptions because of the Ferndale earthquake and tsunami warning. “There is a major delay system-wide in all directions. There is currently no Transbay Tube service to or from San Francisco due to a report of an earthquake. Please seek alternate means of transportation,” the transit operator said.

Democrats select three nominees to replace Rep. Emma Kerr Carpenter in Montana House

Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as the market posted its fifth straight gain and the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched another record high. The S&P 500 rose 0.3%. The benchmark index’s 1.7% gain for the week erased most of its loss from last week. The Dow rose 1% as it nudged past its most recent high set last week, and the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2%. Markets have been volatile over the last few weeks, losing ground in the runup to elections in November, then surging following Donald Trump's victory, before falling again. The S&P 500 has been steadily rising throughout this week to within close range of its record. It's now within about 0.5% of its all-time high set last week. “Overall, market behavior has normalized following an intense few weeks,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, in a statement. Several retailers jumped after giving Wall Street encouraging financial updates. Gap soared 12.8% after handily beating analysts' third-quarter earnings and revenue expectations, while raising its own revenue forecast for the year. Discount retailer Ross Stores rose 2.2% after raising its earnings forecast for the year. EchoStar fell 2.8% after DirecTV called off its purchase of that company's Dish Network unit. Smaller company stocks had some of the biggest gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.8%. A majority of stocks in the S&P 500 gained ground, but those gains were kept in check by slumps for several big technology companies. Nvidia fell 3.2%. Its pricey valuation makes it among the heaviest influences on whether the broader market gains or loses ground. The company has grown into a nearly $3.6 trillion behemoth because of demand for its chips used in artificial-intelligence technology. Intuit, which makes TurboTax and other accounting software, fell 5.7%. It gave investors a quarterly earnings forecast that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% following a decision by the Supreme Court to allow a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. All told, the S&P 500 rose 20.63 points to 5,969.34. The Dow climbed 426.16 points to 44,296.51, and the Nasdaq picked up 42.65 points to close at 2,406.67. European markets closed mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Crude oil prices rose. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.41% from 4.42% late Thursday. In the crypto market, bitcoin hovered around $99,000, according to CoinDesk. It has more than doubled this year and first surpassed the $99,000 level on Thursday. Retailers remained a big focus for investors this week amid close scrutiny on consumer spending habits headed into the holiday shopping season. Walmart, the nation's largest retailer, reported a quarter of strong sales and gave investors an encouraging financial forecast. Target, though, reported weaker earnings than analysts' expected and its forecast disappointed Wall Street. Consumer spending has fueled economic growth, despite a persistent squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. Inflation has been easing and the Federal Reserve has started trimming its benchmark interest rates. That is likely to help relieve pressure on consumers, but any major shift in spending could prompt the Fed to reassess its path ahead on interest rates. Also, any big reversals on the rate of inflation could curtail spending. Consumer sentiment remains strong, according to the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index. It revised its latest figure for November to 71.8 from an initial reading of 73 earlier this month, though economists expected a slight increase. It's still up from 70.5 in October. The survey also showed that consumers' inflation expectations for the year ahead fell slightly to 2.6%, which is the lowest reading since December of 2020. Wall Street will get another update on how consumers feel when the business group The Conference Board releases its monthly consumer confidence survey on Tuesday. A key inflation update will come on Wednesday when the U.S. releases its October personal consumption expenditures index. The PCE is the Fed's preferred measure of inflation and this will be the last PCE reading prior to the central bank's meeting in December.