A few months ago, this writer told you how the UNRWA -- a corrupt, feckless arm of the even more corrupt and feckless United Nations -- was caught stealing and selling humanitarian aid meant for Gaza . They called Hamas a 'political movement' (it's designated a terror group by several nations) and somehow got nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize (as if that award could get any less meaningless). The UNRWA was up to its elbows in the October 7, 2023 terror attack. So much so even the Biden administration couldn't ignore its involvement and cut off funding . Now Senator Peter Welch, Democrat from Vermont, wants to give the UNRWA funding again: Today, I'm introduced legislation today with my colleagues to restore funding to UNRWA. Given the intensifying humanitarian crisis in Gaza, we must give the most effective aid organization in the region the resources they need to save civilian lives. pic.twitter.com/Zx0GQ13Bs7 Absolutely not. You are literally f**king defending and funding terrorists Yes they are. Nope. You’re supporting terrorists, dummy. He's not too bright. The pronouns in the bio were a clue, we guess. You support the murder of Jews https://t.co/UC6JVQoygi Not only the murder of Jews, but the stealing of aid meant for Gaza. UNRWA is a subsidiary of Hamas, a designated terrorist organization. Under 18 U.S. Code § 2339B, it's a felony to provide resources to such an organization. https://t.co/dgxjLRMz6G We hope the next AG will charge him with a crime if they fund this. What do you mean by "Most effective", Senator? https://t.co/bEEFE3R6Xx Most effective way to give money to terrorists. UNWRA is a paper-thin veneer over full support for terrorists and terrorism. You're either blitheringly stupid for believing it or wholly complicit in supporting their goals of killing Jews. Which are you? You tell us, Senator. Hell no Cut all finding. https://t.co/hHcgCosLBl If this writer ever ran for POTUS, she would include defunding the UN and expelling it from the property in lower Manhattan. Absolutely not. https://t.co/BxQsqxnPnL Not a chance in hell. There's "no". There's "hell no". Then there's this. NO. FKN. WAY. https://t.co/5hUh04Qb7H THIS. Welch introduces a resolution for an arms embargo on Israel. Welch introduces a resolution to fund Hamas fighters. https://t.co/MRJ2ecvLxD pic.twitter.com/rqvYpkRbM1 One could draw the logical conclusion that Welch hates Jews. Is there something in the water in Vermont that they keep electing crackpots to the Senate? Serious question. https://t.co/Ff9Ggii4TI We should look into that, because damn, Vermont. The day after there’s a trove of evidence demonstrating UNRWA support and complicity with Hamas, senators decide we need more of that? 🤦♂️ https://t.co/3XewR98ipE https://t.co/yK4WSDlZUo Make it make sense.Eva Longoria spent Christmas soaking up some sun. The “Desperate Housewives” alum posted bikini snaps via Instagram Thursday while “out of office” with her family. In one shot, the actress, 49, walked toward the camera in a navy blue bathing suit with sunglasses perched on her head. Longoria wore the same swimwear elsewhere in the social media slideshow while sitting and enjoying a meal. She rocked a red dress while posing with her husband, José Bastón, and their 6-year-old son, Santiago, in other photos. The family members took a boat ride, ate chilaquiles and watched the sunset. It is unclear whether Santiago and her loved ones were on a tropical trip or at one of their homes in Mexico and Spain. The former soap star sparked confusion in November when she spoke to Marie Claire about “escap[ing]” the United States after Donald Trump’s election win . “I’m privileged,” she said at the time. “I get to ... go somewhere. Most Americans aren’t so lucky. They’re going to be stuck in this dystopian country, and my anxiety and sadness is for them.” Longoria explained that she “felt like [her] chapter [in Hollywood] was done” after the COVID-19 pandemic. Later that same week, she called Ana Navarro while the “View” co-host was recording the talk show’s “Behind the Table” podcast to clarify that she “didn’t leave [the country] because of the political environment.” The Golden Globe nominee asked, “Will you please let them know I didn’t move out of the United States because of Trump ?” Before calling herself a “proud American,” she described moving with Bastón, 56, and Santiago because “work took” her away. Longoria and the businessman have been married since May 2016 . Their baby boy was born two years later.
Glancy Prongay & Murray LLP Reminds Investors of Looming Deadline in the Class Action Lawsuit Against Rentokil Initial plc (RTO)STUTTGART, Germany (AP) — Players from Swiss team Young Boys held up teammate Meschack Elia's shirt as a tribute during their Champions League game at Stuttgart after his son died this week. Lukasz Lakomy gave Young Boys the lead with a powerful long-range shot in the sixth minute Wednesday and ran toward the sideline, where he held up Elia's shirt as his teammates gathered around him. Young Boys said in a statement earlier Wednesday that one of Elia's sons had “died completely unexpectedly following a short illness” in Elia's home country of Congo. The 27-year-old Elia had been informed Tuesday evening and was on his way to Congo to be with his family, the club added. Both teams wore black armbands during the game, and there was a moment of silence before kickoff. Stuttgart won the game 5-1 to leave the Swiss champion with its sixth loss from six games. Young Boys captain Loris Benito said the game and the result meant little to his team in the circumstances. “I honestly have to tell you that this evening is not about sport at all for us, but about the tragedy that we experienced yesterday,” Benito told broadcaster DAZN. “It is so unimaginable and everything else is irrelevant when you experience this.” ___ AP soccer: The Associated Press
US lawmakers voted Wednesday after fraught negotiations to move forward with a contentious 2025 defense budget that raises troops' pay but blocks funding of gender-affirming care for some transgender children of service members. The centerpiece of the $884 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) -- which was green-lit by the Republican-led House of Representatives but still needs Senate approval -- is a 14.5 percent pay increase for junior enlisted service members and 4.5 percent for other personnel. But talks over the 1,800-page-plus text were complicated by a last-minute Republican intervention to prevent the military's health program from covering gender-affirming care for children of service members if it results in "sterilization." "Citizens don't want their tax dollars to go to this, and underaged people often regret these surgeries later in life," Nebraska Republican Don Bacon told CNN. "It's a bad hill to die on for Democrats." Gender-affirming health care for children is just one of multiple fronts in the so-called "culture wars" that polarize US politics and divide the country, with Republicans using the issue as a cudgel against Democrats in November's elections. The funding block angered progressives, and prompted the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee to come out against the legislation. "As I said a few days ago, blanketly denying health care to people who need it -- just because of a biased notion against transgender people -- is wrong," Adam Smith, who represents a district in Washington state, said in a statement. "The inclusion of this harmful provision puts the lives of children at risk and may force thousands of service members to make the choice of continuing their military service or leaving to ensure their child can get the health care they need." Smith slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson for pandering to "the most extreme elements of his party" by including the transgender provision. The must-pass NDAA -- a bill that Congress has sent to the president's desk without fail every year since 1961 -- cleared the chamber in a 281-140 vote and now moves to the Senate, with final passage expected next week. The topline figure is one percent above last year's total and, with funding from other sources, brings the total defense budget to just under $900 billion. Some foreign policy hawks on the Republican side of the Senate wanted $25 billion more for the Pentagon but they are still expected to support the bill. "The safety and security of the American people is our top priority, and this year's NDAA ensures our military has the resources and the capabilities needed to remain the most powerful fighting force on the planet," Johnson told reporters. ft/mlmBetween both upcoming Marvel movies and upcoming Marvel TV shows , there is no shortage of Marvel Cinematic Universe projects on the way in the coming years... but there are announced titles that remain a bit more mysterious than others. One of the standouts within that group is Armor Wars , which was first announced all the way back in late 2020 and has undergone some major behind-the-scenes changes as it has made its way through development. So what is going on with Armor Wars and where do things presently stand? What we do know about the project is admittedly limited, but between that information and machinations unfolding in the near future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there are reasons to be a touch concerned that it will be a production that never starts rolling cameras. What We Know About Armor Wars Right off the bat, it should be noted that Armor Wars has never had a release date (it’s not a case of Marvel Studios regularly postponing a project a la what has been going on with the Blade movie ). That being said, it has had a complicated development history. When the title was first announced as part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s upcoming slate, the plan was to make it as a Disney+ original series. But while other titles announced at the same time as Armor Wars have either been completed ( Secret Invasion , I Am Groot ) or are on the way soon ( Ironheart ), the journey for the Iron Man spinoff has been much more complicated. I point out that the original plan for Armor Wars was to make it as a series because that’s no longer the direction that has been set. At D23 Expo in 2022, Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige announced that the idea for the project was pivoting and that instead of being a show, it would instead become a movie . It was said at the time that medium would be a better fit for the story... but that was pretty much it, as it wasn’t given a release window or specifically integrated into plans for Phase 5 and Phase 6. As for what we’ve heard about Armor Wars in the time since then, there are reasons to wonder if the movie is ever actually going to get to the production stage. Yassir Lester Remains Attached As A Writer, But The Project Still Doesn’t Have A Director Don Cheadle Is Set To Star... But What About The Events Of Secret Invasion? The Iron Man-Shaped Hole In The Marvel Cinematic Universe May Be Getting Otherwise Filled Who Is Making Armor Wars? When a project at a major studio undergoes a change as big as changing mediums, it often coincides with shakeups on the creative side – but to the credit of Marvel Studios, Armor Wars is a project that has kept the same vision in play from pretty much the start. Y assir Lester was hired to be the head writer for the series in August 2021, and it was confirmed by Kevin Feige at D23 Expo 2022 that he would be staying onboard to write the screenplay. Lester has remained attached, having commented on the blockbuster’s development as recently as October 2024 . What Armor Wars doesn’t have presently, however, is a director attached who will bring the script to life, and you don’t have to be an obsessive cinephile to know that the hiring of a director is a pretty damn integral part of a movie’s development. The fact that there isn’t one on board suggests that there isn’t a firm story that is ready to have a particular vision applied, and that’s a troubling look from an outside perspective. CINEMABLEND NEWSLETTER Your Daily Blend of Entertainment News How Will Armor Wars Be Impacted By The Fallout From Secret Invasion? If you’re a Marvel Cinematic Universe fan who watches everything within the canon, you know that the status of Don Cheadle ’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes is very complicated presently. When Armor Wars was first announced as a TV series, the last time we had seen the character was in the final scenes of Avengers: Endgame ; he hadn’t even yet made his cameo in the first episode of The Falcon And The Winter Soldier . Since then, however, Cheadle played a key role in 2023’s Secret Invasion – which includes the revelation that the real James Rhodes was kidnapped by Skrulls at one point and replaced by a shapeshifting alien doppelgänger. It should go without saying that this development has to have a huge impact on Armor Wars , and it very much feels like a wrench in the gears. Based on the Marvel Comics story of the same name, the story is meant to concern the effort by Rhodey a.k.a. War Machine to stop the proliferation of Tony Stark’s incredible Iron Man technology – but that gets a bit muddled when you have to shoehorn in information about the protagonist’s alien abduction and absence from the world for an unclear number of years. I can easily imagine this being a creative roadblock around which the movie can’t navigate. Could The Mix Of Ironheart And Robert Downey Jr.’s Return To The MCU Render Armor Wars Unnecessary? Let’s now address the elephant in the room. When Armor Wars was first announced as a new Marvel Cinematic Universe project, there existed an Iron Man-shaped hole to fill. Robert Downey Jr .’s Tony Stark died in Avengers: Endgame , and the franchise understandably didn’t want to squander all of the love that exists for the character and his spectacular technology. A new series with War Machine at the center made for a logical project to develop... but with everything that has happened in the last few years, the time for it may be gone. In this conversation, the first project to keep in mind is Ironheart starring Dominique Thorne as the titular hero a.k.a. Riri Williams. Announced at the same as Armor Wars , the Disney+ original series has had some delays of its own (it was shot all the way back in mid-2022, prior to the character’s big debut in Black Panther : Wakanda Forever ), but the six episode series is finally set to arrive in June 2025 . And the character using Iron Man-esque equipment arguably makes Rhodey’s story somewhat redundant. The other part of this element of the discussion is the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. He won’t be back as Tony Stark, as it was announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2024 that he will be playing Victor Von Doom a.k.a. Doctor Doom , but I still contemplate it having a big picture impact on Armor Wars . Between Ironheart and Downey Jr.’s return, one could argue that the aforementioned Iron Man-shaped hole has been filled in the aggregate... and Armor Wars is still stuck in development hell. At present, the project’s future is hazy. Comments made by those involved in recent months have suggested that the film remains in active development, but one doesn’t get the sense that a great amount of resources are being put toward it, and it’s certainly not being emphasized as one of the MCU’s big upcoming titles on the road to Avengers: Doomsday (coming in May 2026) and Avengers: Secret Wars (coming in May 2027). Stay tuned here on CinemaBlend for all of the latest updates about the project in the coming months/years.
Juan Soto gets free luxury suite and up to 4 premium tickets for home games in $765M Mets dealCartessa Aesthetics Introduces Three New Technologies to Give Providers a Head Start for 2025
What to know about suspect’s arrestNEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes rose to more records Wednesday after tech companies talked up how much of a boost they’re getting from the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 climbed 0.6% to add to what’s set to be one of its best years of the millennium. It’s the 56th time the index has hit an all-time high this year after climbing in 11 of the last 12 days . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 308 points, or 0.7%, while the Nasdaq composite added 1.3% to its own record. Salesforce helped pull the market higher after delivering stronger revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, though its profit fell just short. CEO Mark Benioff highlighted the company’s artificial-intelligence offering for customers, saying “the rise of autonomous AI agents is revolutionizing global labor, reshaping how industries operate and scale.” The stock price of the company, which helps businesses manage their customers, jumped 11%. Marvell Technology leaped even more after delivering better results than expected, up 23.2%. CEO Matt Murphy said the semiconductor supplier is seeing strong demand from AI and gave a forecast for profit in the upcoming quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. All the optimistic talk helped Nvidia , the company whose chips are powering much of the move into AI, rally 3.5%. It was the strongest force pushing upward on the S&P 500 by far. They helped offset an 8.9% drop for Foot Locker, which reported profit and revenue that fell short of analysts’ expectations. CEO Mary Dillon said the company is taking a more cautious view, and it cut its forecasts for sales and profit this year. Dillon pointed to how keen customers are for discounts and how soft demand has been outside of Thanksgiving week and other key selling periods. Retailers overall have offered mixed signals about how resilient U.S. shoppers can remain. Their spending has been one of the main reasons the U.S. economy has avoided a recession that earlier seemed inevitable after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates to crush inflation. But shoppers are now contending with still-high prices and a slowing job market . This week’s highlight for Wall Street will be Friday’s jobs report from the U.S. government, which will show how many people employers hired and fired last month. A narrower report released Wednesday morning suggested employers in the private sector increased their payrolls by less last month than economists expected. Hiring in manufacturing was the weakest since the spring, according to Nela Richardson, chief economist at ADP. The report strengthened traders’ expectations that the Fed will cut its main interest rate again when it meets in two weeks. The Fed began easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high in September, hoping to offer more support for the job market. The central bank had appeared set to continue cutting rates into next year, but the election of Donald Trump has scrambled Wall Street’s expectations somewhat. Trump’s preference for higher tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , which could alter the Fed’s plans . Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the central bank can afford to cut rates cautiously because inflation has slowed from its peak two years ago and the economy remains sturdy. A separate report on Wednesday said health care, finance and other businesses in the U.S. services sector are continuing to grow, but not by as much as before and not by as much as economists expected. One respondent from the construction industry told the survey from the Institute for Supply Management that the Fed’s rate cuts haven't pulled down mortgage rates as much as hoped. Plus, “the unknown effect of tariffs clouds the future.” In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.18% from 4.23% late Tuesday. On Wall Street, Campbell’s sank 6.2% for one of the S&P 500’s sharper losses despite increasing its dividend and reporting a stronger profit than analysts expected. Its revenue fell short of Wall Street’s expectations, and the National Football League’s Washington Commanders hired Campbell’s CEO Mark Clouse as its team president. Gains for airline stocks helped offset that drop after JetBlue Airways said it saw stronger bookings for travel in November and December following the presidential election. It also said it’s benefiting from lower fuel prices, as well as lower costs due to improved on-time performance. JetBlue jumped 8.3%, while Southwest Airlines climbed 3.5%. All told, the S&P 500 rose 36.61 points to 6,086.49. The Dow climbed 308.51 to 45,014.04, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 254.21 to 19,735.12. In stock markets abroad, South Korea’s Kospi sank 1.4% following a night full of drama in Seoul. President Yoon Suk Yeol was facing possible impeachment after he suddenly declared martial law on Tuesday night, prompting troops to surround the parliament. He revoked the martial law declaration six hours later. In the crypto market , bitcoin climbed near $99,000 after Trump said he would nominate Paul Atkins , a cryptocurrency advocate, to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
