z ye Ronnie Wood’s Son Jesse Wood and Wife Fearne Cotton Divorcing After 10 Years of MarriageThe modern-day successors of King Herod

TORONTO — Canada's main stock index moved lower Monday, led by losses in technology and utilities stocks, while U.S. stock markets were also down. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 66.38 points at 25,625.42. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 240.59 points at 44,401.93. The S&P 500 index was down 37.42 points at 6,052.85, while the Nasdaq composite was down 123.08 points at 19,736.69. “It started pretty positive in the morning. It's just been slowly, slowly grinding down ever since,” said Michael Currie, senior investment adviser at TD Wealth. Some of the market direction Monday was driven by two separate news stories out of China, he said. “The (Chinese) central bank says they're starting to buy gold again, and they're looking to loosen their monetary policy a bit. So that helped oil a lot, helped gold a lot,” said Currie. China also said it’s investigating semiconductor giant Nvidia over suspected violations of anti-monopoly laws, which sent the company’s stock lower. Nvidia’s share price was down 2.6 per cent Monday at US$138.81. Otherwise, “it’s all about interest rates today,” said Currie. In the U.S., investors are awaiting the latest update on inflation later in the week. However, given that the slowing job market is more of a concern for the U.S. Federal Reserve at this point, the data is unlikely to change what investors currently expect from the Fed next week, said Currie: a quarter-percentage-point cut. “Unless there's something really crazy out of the inflation numbers, there’s no reason to expect anything different is going to happen next week,” he said. In Canada, where the central bank is gearing up for a rate decision Wednesday, a larger half-point cut is more likely, he said. Expectations for a bigger cut rose after last week’s jobs report, which saw the unemployment rate jump to 6.8 per cent in November. “The more we're cutting rates, especially the accelerated rate compared to the States, the more that just keeps beating up our dollar,” said Currie. He expects more buzz in the coming months about the divergence between interest rates in Canada and the U.S. as the loonie continues to weaken. “We're seeing it already, and as the gap gets bigger, it'll become more of a story.” However, Currie noted the TSX briefly touched an all-time high earlier in the day. “Basically since the US election, it's just been a non-stop rally,” he said. The Canadian dollar traded for 70.77 cents US compared with 70.74 cents US on Friday. The January crude oil contract was up US$1.17 at US$68.37 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up 11 cents at US$3.18 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was up US$26.20 at US$2,685.80 an ounce and the March copper contract was up eight cents at US$4.28 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 9, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

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.PM says overbilling by power firms unacceptable, directs completion of smart meters installationManulife cautions investors regarding New York Stock and Bond LLC offer for shares

The King is scheduled to attend the show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday. Presenters Amanda Holden and Alan Carr led the stars arriving at the 2024 Royal Variety Performance, hours after the Queen pulled out due to lingering symptoms from a chest infection. The King is scheduled to attend the show at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Friday which will see Sir Elton John and his husband David Furnish present a musical number from their new show The Devil Wears Prada – based on the 2006 Oscar-nominated film. Cast members Vanessa Williams, who plays Miranda Priestly, and Matt Henry, who stars as art director Nigel, were among those posing on the red carpet ahead of the performance which showcases an original score by Sir Elton. The variety show will also see debuts from British singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor with her hit track Murder On The Dancefloor while Eurovision winner Nemo is also featured on the bill. Also posing on the carpet were US magicians and comedy duo Penn and Teller, whose performance marks their 50th anniversary. Comedy will come from Ted Lasso star Ellie Taylor, writer and comic Scott Bennett, Scottish comedian Larry Dean and political comic Matt Forde – who posed on the red carpet with a crutch after undergoing surgery for cancer on his spine. Among the arrivals was TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, who will make an appearance in this year’s show with her Change And Check Choir led by Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow. The choir, made up of women from across the UK who detected their breast cancer through Kelly’s campaign, will perform Love Is All Around, which is being re-released to raise awareness of breast cancer early detection. It comes hours after Camilla insisted the “show must go on” after pulling out of attending the performance on Friday evening as doctors advised that she should prioritise rest. A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “Following a recent chest infection, the Queen continues to experience some lingering post-viral symptoms, as a result of which doctors have advised that, after a busy week of engagements, Her Majesty should prioritise sufficient rest. “With great regret, she has therefore withdrawn from attendance at tonight’s Royal Variety Performance. His Majesty will attend as planned.” A royal source said the Queen was “naturally disappointed to miss the evening’s entertainments and sends her sincere apologies to all those involved, but is a great believer that ‘the show must go on'”. “She hopes to be back to full strength and regular public duties very soon,” the source added. The Royal Variety Performance will air on ITV1, ITVX, STV and STV Player in December. Money raised from the show will go to help people from the world of entertainment in need of care and assistance, with the Royal Variety Charity launching an initiative to help those with mental health issues this year.National Maritime Heritage Complex at Lothal crucial to make India leading maritime nation: SonowalU.S. Jon Tester warned the chamber he may shed a fear tears on Monday during his farewell speech in the U.S. Senate, but it wouldn't be for sorrow; someone had just convinced the 68-year-old Montana farmer closing out his third term to play a little basketball a day earlier. Such silliness set the tone as Tester bid so long to the nation's capital, particularly in the send-off speeches from Democratic Senate buddy Cory Booker and the stately Republican Sen. Mitt Romney from Utah. Tester's re-election effort fell short last month in a high-stakes contest against Republican newcomer Tim Sheehy. Tester's races for the U.S. Senate have always been won on a tight margin. On Nov. 5, Sheehy beat Montana's senior senator by 8 percentage points, completing a GOP sweep of statewide offices here. Early on in his speech, Tester said with some conviction that it was time to move forward. That was the case when he moved on from his meat-cutting operation to become a state legislator, and again when he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. In the time since, Tester has become one of the most consequential policymakers in the Senate on veterans’ issues, chairing the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. He raised mileage reimbursements approved for veterans traveling for health care services, bills working to better veterans health care and women’s health care with the Department of Veterans Affairs. He held especially high the First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2022 (PACT Act), which provided treatment for health issues from exposure to toxic burn pits and other substances like Agent Orange. "Veterans, veterans, veterans, they all got together and made this the highest priority," he said. "Some of you could remember the veterans being on the swamp in July, hotter than ... hot, and we got it passed because of their influence." Tester is credited for pulling lawmakers together to get the bill over the finish line in the Senate. Sen. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, made sure to not let the moment pass without the record reflecting it. "The PACT Act would not have happened without Jon Tester," he said. "That's just a fact." Tester spoke about his upbringing, his memories of immigrant grandparents and the influence of his parents on his fashion of public service. "So what did these ancestors instill in me? They instilled Montana values, like telling the truth, like your word is your bond, like your handshake means something and that you respect people and absolutely never, never sass your elders," he said. "But most importantly they taught me that hard work creates luck, and hard work is essential for success." He thanked his wife, Sharla, who has been a familiar face with him in Washington, D.C., and on the recent campaign circuit. He was 21 and she was 19 when they took over his family's farm. "That meant every other day of the year, our workplace was across from one another with knives, very sharp knives in our hands. That taught us to choose our arguments carefully," he said. "In the end she always supported my public service endeavors even when she really didn't think it was a good idea." Tester said the Big Sandy School Board was the hardest job he ever had, and the Montana Legislature was the most fun. He spoke of many accomplishments, from infrastructure funding and community banking to supporting tech job growth in the U.S. and in Montana. But Tester said his greatest accomplishment was serving in the U.S. Senate "as a citizen legislator, having a real full-time job outside his body, in my case, as a farmer." "This is what our forefathers had in mind," he said. He urged the body to take up efforts to bolster the nation's military defense, climate change, consolidation of the agriculture industry, public education and more. He also compelled the Senate to take up campaign finance reform, calling it the source of division among the country and paralysis inside of Congress. Montana's Senate contest this year drew a record-setting flood of outside money, more than $315 million. Tester meanwhile raised and spent more than $87 million over the cycle, compared to Sheehy's campaign, which won out with almost $22 million raised. Booker, a Democratic senator from urban New Jersey, wrapped up a farcical "I don't like Jon Tester" speech by driving home some commonalities the two found while serving in Washington. And he praised Tester for running for a fourth term while well aware that Montana was trending further to the right, steadily shedding its purple status and cementing itself as a Trump state. "Jon didn't go quietly into the night," Booker said. "He chose, because of the love of his state, to run an election. ... It was a testimony to his character." Republicans chipped in their respects Monday, as well. Sen. Steve Daines, Montana's soon-to-be senior senator, thanked Tester in a statement for his 25 years of public service to the state, from school board to the U.S. Capitol. "I'm sure Jon has lost count of the number of very early cold and dark Montana mornings he left Big Sandy to get to Great Falls to catch his plane to D.C., but this is just one of the sacrifices folks don’t often see. Jon did that commute for 18 years," Daines said in the statement. "There was never any doubt that Jon worked hard every day to represent the people of the state we both love to call home. And while it’s no secret Jon and I didn’t see eye to eye on many issues, we worked together on a number of important Montana priorities and agree that the people we represent make coming to work here every day worth it. Jon, thank you for your decades of dedicated service to the Treasure State." Romney likewise applauded Tester Monday. When he believed President Joe Biden would falter on his own re-election bid, Romney said he approached Tester (and a small number of other Democrats) about running for president, despite disagreeing with him "on almost every issue." "I wanted Jon Tester to be the next president of the United States because he's a man of such extraordinary character," he said, then grinning: "He is as honest as his hair is short. And as strong as his physique is imposing." There were several fits of laughter on the Senate chamber floor over the hour spent on the goodbye, but Tester finished his own speech with some stern assessment. "This democracy has resulted in the greatest country that has ever existed. It is because of our forefathers' ability to compromise and think clearly about the challenges ahead," he said. "To say that I'm worried about this country's ability to maintain the strongest economy and the most powerful military in the world would be an understatement. However, I know a majority of people that serve in this U.S. Senate today are real legislators who want to do real legislating. To those senators, you need to make sure your voices are a majority of this body. If not, this country will change in a way that our children will not thank us for. God bless you all, and tally-ho."

U.S. Approves $130 Million Precision Guidance Sale to Norway

Published 5:24 pm Friday, November 22, 2024 By Staff Reports Can we count on Marco Rossi scoring a goal when the Minnesota Wild clash with the Calgary Flames at 4:00 PM ET on Saturday? To assist you with your bets, take a look at the stats and trends below. Sign up for ESPN+ today to watch 1,000+ out-of-market NHL games, ESPN+ Hockey Night & more. Odds to score a goal this game: +330 (Bet $10 to win $33.00 if he scores a goal) Place your bets on any NHL matchup at BetMGM. Sign up today using our link. Catch NHL action all season long on Fubo. Catch NHL action all season long on Max. Bet on this or any NHL matchup at BetMGM. Not all offers available in all states, please visit BetMGM for the latest promotions for your area. Must be 21+ to gamble, please wager responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, contact 1-800-GAMBLER .Murdoch fails to amend family trust in court succession saga: Report

Three-game skid over, NC State faces winless Coppin StatePresident Joe Biden commuted the federal prison sentence Thursday of Mofid Abdel Kader Meshal (or Mufid Abdulqader), the half-brother of billionaire Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, who had served 16 of his 20 years. Biden issued 39 pardons and commuted some 1,500 sentences, some of them involving controversial figures. Abdulqader was convicted in 2008 as one of five defendants in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism funding trial, in which a Muslim charity in the U.S. was found to have funneled donations to Hamas after it was designated a terror group. 398211 04: FBI agents guard the entrance to the Holy Land Foundation December 5, 2001 in Richardson, Texas. The Holy Land Foundation disputes claims made by the U.S. government that it used charitable donations to fund Hamas and their goal is to destroy Israel. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which worked with the Biden-Harris administration to water down the White House antisemitism “strategy,” was named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the trial. It was not immediately clear why Abdulqader had been released. Some observers expressed outrage that the Biden-Harris administration had released a Hamas-linked prisoner while Hamas is still holding Americans hostage in Gaza. The Times of Israel, however, reported that Israeli sources speculated that the release took place as part of hostage negotiations with Hamas, which are said to have improved in recent days, since President-elect Donald Trump said there would be “ALL HELL TO PAY” if all 100 of the remaining hostages were not freed by January 20, and since the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria left Hamas with few remaining sources of military support in the Muslim world. Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election . His recent book, RED NOVEMBER , tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak .