okbet 88 The Issue: Eva Longoria pronouncing the United Sates to be a dystopia following the election. Good riddance to Eva Longoria, who has doubled-down on life abroad after moving away during the pandemic ( “Escaping America? What Eva!” Nov. 21). Finally, one person who threatens to leave the United States actually makes good on her word. Much of her complaints — inflation, high cost of living, homelessness — is thanks to the Democrats (who never admit to any wrongdoing). For four years we had a senile puppet as our “president” and a do-nothing vice president while everyday expenses skyrocketed, along with crime. Veronica Kwiecinski Maspeth Eva Longoria says so long to America. I say: Good, don’t let the door hit your privileged butt on the way out. There is an old saying: If your heart is not in this country, get your butt out of it. I wonder: Will she take all the money she made in this country with her? Gary Acerra Staten Island Don’t cry for me, Eva Longoria: The truth is you can see from your former home state of California that when it comes to homelessness, higher taxes and crime, the Democrats do a bang-up job. Enjoy Spain. I for one am glad you’re leaving, although I think you’re a hypocrite for not staying and enjoying what you voted for in California. Leo Kibler Delray, Fla. Eva Longoria has decided to continue trading America for the better pastures of Spain and Mexico. Many of our problems have to with homelessness and taxation, but of course it was the pandemic that was catalyst that is driving her out of here, and the recent election which led her to call America a dystopia. She is right in acknowledging that it is her privilege that allows her to live elsewhere. Ron Zajicek Cortlandt Good riddance, to Eva Longoria: Hopefully, more of the Hollywood elite will follow her. The Democratic Party created the mess she’s complaining about — and yet President-elect Donald Trump gets blamed. Longoria has no idea about average American troubles, nor does she seem to care about hard-working people trying to raise a families here. P. Fletcher Massappequa Park The Issue: Whoopi Goldberg accusing a Staten Island bakery of political bias. Kudos to The Post’s coverage of Whoopi Goldberg’s tiff with a Staten Island bakery ( “Cherry on top of Whoopi ‘lie,’ ” Nov. 21). Is Whoopi so entitled that she believes her political views are relevant to the simple purchase of dessert? Talk about narcissistic delusions of grandeur. She needs to “woke” up and smell the coffee. Why wouldn’t any confectioner just let her eat their cake, if they were able to profit from the sale? James Evans Worcester, Mass. The Staten Island bakery that Whoopi Goldberg slandered has since been flooded with orders in support of the business. Think the haters on “The View” and ABC will finally learn their lesson? No. The only way to put this dreck of a show on notice is to boycott its sponsors. Walter Goldeski East Brunswick, NJ This is just another example of another Democratic coastal elite talking down to working-class people. And what makes it worse is that Goldberg manufactured this entire issue. A bakery that has been in business for roughly 145 years doesn’t achieve that longevity by shunning people for political reasons. Shame on you, Whoopi. This family deserves an on air apology. Sean P. Kelly Farmingdale Want to weigh in on today’s stories? Send your thoughts (along with your full name and city of residence) to letters@nypost.com. Letters are subject to editing for clarity, length, accuracy, and style.hapabapa Rivian: November Gains Nearly Dissipated Rivian Automotive ( NASDAQ: RIVN ) investors have failed to shake off the market's anxieties over its growth profile as RIVN's recent post-earnings gains dissipated. Notably, investor sentiment was lifted markedly as the Rivian-Volkswagen ( A Unique Price Action-based Growth Investing Service We believe price action is a leading indicator. We called the TSLA top in late 2021. We then picked TSLA's bottom in December 2022. We updated members that the NASDAQ had long-term bearish price action signals in November 2021. We told members that the S&P 500 likely bottomed in October 2022. Members navigated the turning points of the market confidently in our service. Members tuned out the noise in the financial media and focused on what really matters: Price Action. Sign up now for a Risk-Free 14-Day free trial! JR Research is an opportunistic investor. He was recognized by TipRanks as a Top Analyst. He was also recognized by Seeking Alpha as a "Top Analyst To Follow" for Technology, Software, and Internet, as well as for Growth and GARP. He identifies attractive risk/reward opportunities supported by robust price action to potentially generate alpha well above the S&P 500. He has also demonstrated outperformance with his picks. He focuses on identifying growth investing opportunities that present the most attractive risk/reward upside potential. His approach combines sharp price action analysis with fundamentals investing. He tends to avoid overhyped and overvalued stocks while capitalizing on battered stocks with significant upside recovery possibilities. He runs the investing group Ultimate Growth Investing which specializes in identifying high-potential opportunities across various sectors. He focuses on ideas that has strong growth potential and well-beaten contrarian plays, with an 18 to 24 month outlook for the thesis to play out. The group is designed for investors seeking to capitalize on growth stocks with robust fundamentals, buying momentum, and turnaround plays at highly attractive valuations. Learn more Analyst’s Disclosure: I/we have a beneficial long position in the shares of AMZN either through stock ownership, options, or other derivatives. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. Seeking Alpha's Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. 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Technology stocks pull down Wall Street ahead of key inflation report

Andy Murray enters new chapter with Novak Djokovic as coach of long-time rivalUniversity System of Georgia to ban DEI, commit to neutrality, teach Constitution

Billionaires have seen their combined wealth shoot up 121 percent over the past decade to $14 trillion, Swiss bank UBS said Thursday, with tech billionaires’ coffers filling the fastest. Switzerland’s biggest bank, which is among the world’s largest wealth managers, said the number of dollar billionaires increased from 1,757 to 2,682 over the past 10 years, peaking in 2021 with 2,686. The 10th edition of UBS’s annual Billionaire Ambitions report, which tracks the wealth of the world’s richest people, found that billionaires have comfortably outperformed global equity markets over the past decade. The report documents “the growth and investment of great wealth, as well as how it’s being preserved for future generations and used to have a positive effect on society”, said Benjamin Cavalli, head of strategic clients at UBS global wealth management. Between 2015 and 2024, total billionaire wealth increased by 121 percent from $6.3 trillion to $14.0 trillion — while the MSCI AC World Index of global equities rose 73 percent. – Tech wealth – The wealth of tech billionaires increased the fastest, followed by that of industrialists. Worldwide, tech billionaires’ wealth tripled from $788.9 billion in 2015 to $2.4 trillion in 2024. “In earlier years, the new billionaires commercialised e-commerce, social media and digital payments; more recently they engineered the generative AI boom, while also developing cyber-security, fintech, 3D printing and robotics,” UBS said. The report found that since 2020, the global growth trend had slowed due to declines among China’s billionaires. From 2015 to 2020, billionaire wealth grew globally at an annual rate of 10 percent, but growth has plunged to one percent since 2020. Chinese billionaire wealth more than doubled from 2015 to 2020, rising from $887.3 billion to $2.1 trillion, but has since fallen back to $1.8 trillion. However, North American billionaire wealth has risen 58.5 percent to $6.1 trillion since 2020, “led by industrials and tech billionaires”. Meanwhile billionaires are relocating more frequently, with 176 having moved country since 2020, with Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore and the United States being popular destinations. – 268 new billionaires in 2024 – In 2024, some 268 people became billionaires for the first time, with 60 percent of them entrepreneurs. “The year’s new billionaires were mainly self-made,” said UBS. The report said US billionaires accrued the greatest gains in 2024, reinforcing the country’s place as the world’s main centre for billionaire entrepreneurs. Their wealth rose 27.6 percent to $5.8 trillion, or more than 40 percent of billionaire wealth worldwide. Billionaires’ wealth from mainland China and Hong Kong fell 16.8 percent to $1.8 trillion, with the number of billionaires dropping from 588 to 501. Indian billionaires’ wealth increased 42.1 percent to $905.6 billion, while their number grew from 153 to 185. Western Europe’s total billionaire wealth rose 16.0 percent to $2.7 trillion — partly due to a 24 percent increase in Swiss billionaires. UAE billionaires’ aggregate wealth rose 39.5 percent to $138.7 billion. – Next 10 years – UBS said billionaires faced an “uncertain world” over the next 10 years, due to high geopolitical tensions, trade barriers and governments with mounting spending requirements. Billionaires will therefore need to rely on their previous distinctive traits: “smart risk-taking, business focus and determination”. “Risk-taking billionaires are likely to be at the forefront of creating two technology-related industries of the future already taking shape: generative AI and renewables/electrification,” UBS predicted. And more flexible wealth planning will be needed as billionaire families move country and spread around the world. The heirs and philanthropic causes of baby boom billionaires are set to inherit an estimated $6.3 trillion over the next 15 years, UBS said. With 2,400 staff representing 100 different nationalities, AFP covers the world as a leading global news agency. AFP provides fast, comprehensive and verified coverage of the issues affecting our daily lives.

Rhode Island beats Bryant 35-21 to claim its first Coastal Athletic Association title

Davey to enter portalThe people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.SMITHFIELD, R.I. (AP) — Malik Grant rushed for 204 yards and three touchdowns and Rhode Island beat Bryant 35-21 on Saturday to capture its first league title in 39 years. Rhode Island (10-2, 7-1 Coastal Athletic Association) secured the program's seventh title, with each of the previous six coming in the Yankee Conference. The Rams tied a program record for total wins in a season with 10, first set in 1984 and matched in 1985. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Nico Iamaleava throws 4 TD passes to lead No. 10 Tennessee over UTEP 56-0The people that president-elect Donald Trump has selected to lead federal health agencies in his second administration include a retired congressman, a surgeon and a former talk-show host. All of them could play pivotal roles in fulfilling a new political agenda that could change how the government goes about safeguarding Americans' health — from health care and medicines to food safety and science research. And if Congress approves, at the helm of the team as Department of Health and Human Services secretary will be prominent environmental lawyer and anti-vaccine organizer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. By and large, the nominees don't have experience running large bureaucratic agencies, but they know how to talk about health on TV . Centers for Medicare and Medicaid pick Dr. Mehmet Oz hosted a talk show for 13 years and is a well-known wellness and lifestyle influencer. The pick for the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, and for surgeon general, Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, are frequent Fox News contributors. Many on the list were critical of COVID-19 measures like masking and booster vaccinations for young people. Some of them have ties to Florida like many of Trump's other Cabinet nominees: CDC pick Dr. Dave Weldon represented the state in Congress for 14 years and is affiliated with a medical group on the state's Atlantic coast. Nesheiwat's brother-in-law is Rep. Mike Waltz , R-Fla., tapped by Trump as national security adviser. Here's a look at the nominees' potential role in carrying out what Kennedy says is the task to “reorganize” agencies, which have an overall $1.7 billion budget; employ 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials; and affect the lives of all Americans. The Atlanta-based CDC, with a $9.2 billion core budget, is charged with protecting Americans from disease outbreaks and other public health threats. Kennedy has long attacked vaccines and criticized the CDC, repeatedly alleging corruption at the agency. He said on a 2023 podcast that there is "no vaccine that is safe and effective,” and urged people to resist the CDC's guidelines on if and when kids should get vaccinated . Decades ago, Kennedy found common ground with Weldon , the 71-year-old nominee to run the CDC who served in the Army and worked as an internal medicine doctor before he represented a central Florida congressional district from 1995 to 2009. Starting in the early 2000s, Weldon had a prominent part in a debate about whether there was a relationship between a vaccine preservative called thimerosal and autism. He was a founding member of the Congressional Autism Caucus and tried to ban thimerosal from all vaccines. Kennedy, then a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, believed there was a tie between thimerosal and autism and also charged that the government hid documents showing the danger. Since 2001, all vaccines manufactured for the U.S. market and routinely recommended for children 6 years or younger have contained no thimerosal or only trace amounts, with the exception of inactivated influenza vaccine. Meanwhile, study after study after study found no evidence that thimerosal caused autism. Weldon's congressional voting record suggests he may go along with Republican efforts to downsize the CDC, including to eliminate the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which works on topics like drownings, drug overdoses and shooting deaths. Weldon also voted to ban federal funding for needle-exchange programs as an approach to reduce overdoses, and the National Rifle Association gave him an “A” rating for his pro-gun rights voting record. Kennedy is extremely critical of the FDA, which has 18,000 employees and is responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products — as well as overseeing cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods. Makary, Trump’s pick to run the FDA, is closely aligned with Kennedy on several topics . The professor at Johns Hopkins University who is a trained surgeon and cancer specialist has decried the overprescribing of drugs, the use of pesticides on foods and the undue influence of pharmaceutical and insurance companies over doctors and government regulators. Kennedy has suggested he'll clear our “entire” FDA departments and also recently threatened to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk , psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. Makary's contrarian views during the COVID-19 pandemic including the need for masking and giving young kids COVID vaccine boosters. But anything Makary and Kennedy might want to do when it comes to unwinding FDA regulations or revoking long-standing vaccine and drug approvals would be challenging. The agency has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. The agency provides health care coverage for more than 160 million people through Medicaid, Medicare and the Affordable Care Act, and also sets Medicare payment rates for hospitals, doctors and other providers. With a $1.1 trillion budget and more than 6,000 employees, Oz has a massive agency to run if confirmed — and an agency that Kennedy hasn't talked about much when it comes to his plans. While Trump tried to scrap the Affordable Care Act in his first term, Kennedy has not taken aim at it yet. But he has been critical of Medicaid and Medicare for covering expensive weight-loss drugs — though they're not widely covered by either . Trump said during his campaign that he would protect Medicare, which provides insurance for older Americans. Oz has endorsed expanding Medicare Advantage — a privately run version of Medicare that is popular but also a source of widespread fraud — in an AARP questionnaire during his failed 2022 bid for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania and in a 2020 Forbes op-ed with a former Kaiser Permanente CEO. Oz also said in a Washington Examiner op-ed with three co-writers that aging healthier and living longer could help fix the U.S. budget deficit because people would work longer and add more to the gross domestic product. Neither Trump nor Kennedy have said much about Medicaid, the insurance program for low-income Americans. Trump's first administration reshaped the program by allowing states to introduce work requirements for recipients. Kennedy doesn't appear to have said much publicly about what he'd like to see from surgeon general position, which is the nation's top doctor and oversees 6,000 U.S. Public Health Service Corps members. The surgeon general has little administrative power, but can be an influential government spokesperson on what counts as a public health danger and what to do about it — suggesting things like warning labels for products and issuing advisories. The current surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, declared gun violence as a public health crisis in June. Trump's pick, Nesheiwat, is employed as a New York City medical director with CityMD, a group of urgent care facilities in the New York and New Jersey area, and has been at City MD for 12 years. She also has appeared on Fox News and other TV shows, authored a book on the “transformative power of prayer” in her medical career and endorses a brand of vitamin supplements. She encouraged COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic, calling them “a gift from God” in a February 2021 Fox News op-ed, as well as anti-viral pills like Paxlovid. In a 2019 Q&A with the Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation , Nesheiwat said she is a “firm believer in preventive medicine” and “can give a dissertation on hand-washing alone.” As of Saturday, Trump had not yet named his choice to lead the National Institutes of Health, which funds medical research through grants to researchers across the nation and conducts its own research. It has a $48 billion budget. Kennedy has said he'd pause drug development and infectious disease research to shift the focus to chronic diseases. He'd like to keep NIH funding from researchers with conflicts of interest, and criticized the agency in 2017 for what he said was not doing enough research into the role of vaccines in autism — an idea that has long been debunked . Associated Press writers Amanda Seitz and Matt Perrone and AP editor Erica Hunzinger contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.Andy Murray enters new chapter with Novak Djokovic as coach of long-time rival

I watched the interview with Sam Altman by Andrew Ross Sorkin of the New York Times. It seemed like a fundamental way station in the story that people are telling about large language models and related technology. Here are some of the main points that stood out to me about the journey, and how it has informed not just business, but society as a whole. First of all, Sorkin asked Altman about the trajectory of the technology itself, and he brought this up early on the interview. Why, he asked, did people get suddenly more interested when ChatGPT first came out? In response Altman talked about what he called the “chanciness” of change, and suggested that one reason for massive investments directly after the unveiling of ChatGPT is that people were having a lot of fun talking to the model, interacting directly, and seeing firsthand what the technology was capable of. “We said, ‘Well, if that's what people want, we can make it much easier to use,’” he explained. “You don't have to sign up for a developer account and do all these other things, and we can sort of train it to be good at conversations. And so we said, okay, let's make this as a product.” Since then, as the two noted, it’s been off to the races. Is There a Wall? Artificial Intelligence and Its Limitations Sorkin and his interview subject also discussed limitations and constraints on technological progress. Altman seemed to suggest that we shouldn’t worry so much about whether there is a wall, but understand what’s already happened, and be enthusiastic about the potential that it shows. In a sense, these technologies have already proven themselves. As for drivers of this program, he suggested that algorithmic progress is at least as important as expanding compute. He pointed to the transformer as a major innovation, and if you look back in the blog, I had been laying out how new models take advantage of this architecture to jump to the next level. The AI Arms Race Noting an “arms race” in terms of processing power, Sorkin asked Altman about who the competitors are, and how that works. Later in the interview, he got into some of the tensions within the industry, where Altman largely declined to wade into the fray, but instead talked about his positive past history with Elon Musk, and his general desire to work with others across the field, rather than foment conflict. Now, without trying to cherry-pick Altman’s responses to Sorkin’s sort of personal inquiries, I think it’s notable to provide this quote and take notice, in the context that there’s a lot of talk flying around about business clout and political sway, specifically centered around whether anti-competitive behavior can come out of unusual political relationships: “I believe pretty strongly that Elon will do the right thing,” Altman said. “It can be profoundly unAmerican, to use political power, to the degree that Elon has it, to hurt your competitors and (unfairly position) your own businesses. ... I don't think Elon would do it.” For more on the background, and his other thoughts on this score, you can watch the segment. The Long March In terms of AI safety and the singularity, Altman, when asked about pain points, suggested that there’s going to be a big gap between AGI and the eventual singularity. We can be nervous now, he said, about some things, but major challenges will crop up on that open road well after we’ve attained these current sets of goals that humanity has for AI. In general, he said, he has faith that researchers will solve a lot of the practical problems with emerging digital sentience, to wit – how do we coexist with other thinkers who don’t have physical bodies, but are stuck in a mainframe somewhere? A Sense of Place Talking about the unique value and contributions of OpenAI, Altman noted that the company was essentially in the right place, at the right time. “We discovered an important new type of (tech),” he said. As an analogy, he talked about transistors and how they facilitated the eventual cloud and big data eras, invoking Moore’s law. Gordon Moore’s now-famous prediction has become a staple of reading the tea leaves on tech, and figuring out how and why we arrived at this point. To Those Who Write Near the end of the interview, Altman threw all of us who live in the human writing world a bone when he suggested that AI will not replace humans as a creative force. “We need to find new economic models where creators can have new revenue streams,” he said. To which I think most freelancers, and those working in beleaguered newsrooms, would agree. The interview ended with some touching remarks about parenthood, and Altman‘s own impending role as a father, with his thoughts about the next generations and what they will face. “The industrial revolution comes along, so machines take all of our jobs,” he said, moving through historic periods of change. “What does this mean? Computer revolution comes along. Computers take a bunch of current jobs. What does it mean? And the answer, at least in terms of what it means to be human, is: not very much. The economy will change, the kinds of jobs people will do will change, and people will care way more, and love their kids way more than they care about AI and anything else that any technology can deliver. The sort of the deep human drives are so powerful and have been here for so long. Evolution is pretty slow ... I think in some sense, my kids will grow up in a super different world, and in some other sense, it will be exactly the same.” This is my roundup of what I heard from one of the brightest stars in technology at this month’s event which is often so notable in terms of the industry as a whole. It’s almost Christmas time, and we’re looking at 2024 as a year that is coming to a close. It’s fascinating and staggering how much progress has taken place in just four short quarters. Stay tuned for more.Master Builders Association doing Australia no favours on immigration policy

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Ludhiana: Police filed a case against three men for allegedly snatching more than Rs 1 lakh from the two employees of a finance company in Jagraon. Chandigarh resident Laxman Murgan, who works in a micro finance company, said that he went to Ghalib Kalan village with his associates for work. The complainant said that he had Rs 52,000 whereas his associate had Rs 50,000. He said that they were leaving the village after meeting clients when the three masked men, who were armed with iron rods, surrounded them. He said that they snatched around Rs 1 lakh as well as a mobile phone from them. Police filed a case under Section 304 BNS (Snatching) at Sadar Jagraon police station. Further investigation is on. We also published the following articles recently Gold ornaments worth lakhs snatched from jeweller In a daring daylight robbery in Rayagada district, Odisha, two motorcycle-borne miscreants snatched a bag containing over 500 grams of gold ornaments, worth lakhs, from a jewellery shop owner. The incident occurred Monday morning as Santosh Kumar Sahoo was opening his shop in Ambadola. One miscreant grabbed the bag while Sahoo was unlocking the door, and they quickly escaped. Two held for snatching chain Chennai police apprehended two young men, Mohammad Sheik Sikkander and Parvesh Musharraf, on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in a chain-snatching incident that occurred in Mylapore on November 30th. A 19-gram gold chain and the motorcycle used in the crime were recovered. The duo, residents of Saidapet and West Saidapet respectively, are now in custody. Further investigation is likely underway. Spate of break-ins, snatchings keep Trichy police on alert A spate of burglaries and snatchings has Trichy police on high alert. A fruit shop in Manapparai was robbed of 1.47 lakh, while a farmhouse near Vaiyampatti lost 90,000 worth of bronze items. A photo studio in Pirattiyur also reported stolen electronics. Two chain-snatching incidents led to arrests, with stolen phones recovered. Police are investigating the break-ins and increased patrols. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .None

Fort Worth’s Blackland Distillery sets sights on national reach with new investmentAt least 56 dead in stampede outside football match in Guinea, AfricaBetween the dates of May 22 and July 11, Kamil Zielinski is reported to have "pursued a course of conduct which amounted to the stalking" of a woman in St Helens. Zielinski, 29, of Bourne Gardens, St Helens, is said to have "known or ought to have known" that his conduct amounted to harassment, particularly as he attended the victim's home address unannounced while "knowing [he was] unwelcome at the address". READ > Police attend property after 'dog attacked another' in garden After pleading guilty to the offences of stalking without fear, in July, Zielinski's case was heard at Sefton Magistrates Court on Thursday, October 24. The 29-year-old was handed a three-year restraining order in which he must not contact the victim by any means, including social media, or enter the curtilage of her home address. Zielinski was also ordered a community order in that he must attend appointments and comply with rehabilitation activities for a maximum of 30 days. The 29-year-old was also ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £114, which was reduced from £120 due to his guilty plea, and ordered to pay a further £85 to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Photo: District of Peachland Peachland mayor and council Enough is enough. That is the sentiment of Peachland’s mayor, who says political discourse in the community has grown increasingly toxic. “Recently, there have been instances of harassment, intimidation, and vandalism to personal property directed at members of our district council,” said mayor Patrick Van Minsel in a news release Thursday. “This behaviour is not only unacceptable, but it also goes against the very fabric of our community values.” In an interview with Castanet News, Van Minsel says the harassment and intimidation of councillors has been a simmering problem for the “past months ... even year.” Van Minsel says vitriol on social media this week in conversations about local politics was a “drop too much” and “appalling” to him. “I have no problem with people watching their opinion, absolutely not. I encourage them to do that, but in a respectful way,” the mayor continued. Van Minsel said he could not comment on specifics of the vandalism of councillors’ personal property, but said the issue is “being dealt with.” Peachland councillors earn just over $18,000 per year, so while it is not a volunteer position, it is something carried out in service of the community. “I think there should be a certain respect for the office of a council,” Van Minsel said. “They put in, and I can testify to this, countless hours of very hard work and sacrifice of personal time, just to represent our community and their interests.” While social media can be useful for local discussion and engagement, when misused, Van Minsel says “ it can fuel a lot of misunderstandings and erodes trust within the community.” The mayor says any further harassment, intimidation or vandalism directed at council members will be referred to law enforcement. Van Minsel says anyone with concerns or disagreements with council can contact him directly at [email protected] . “I am here to listen, understand, and mediate in order to address any issues constructively and respectfully. Let us continue to foster a community where dialogue, respect, and civility are our guiding principles,” he said in the news release.

(The Center Square) – The majority of Americans generally support the idea of cutting back on the federal government, polling finds. The Pew Research poll from this summer found that 56% of Americans say the government is “almost always wasteful and inefficient.” Gallup’s recent polling data shows that 55% of Americans say the government is doing “too much” while only 41% say it should do more. Americans are more evenly split how big the government should be, but increasing government efficiency has more broad support. “Gallup polling earlier this year showed that 58% of Americans are dissatisfied with the size and power of the federal government,” Gallup said. “A slight majority of Americans say the government has too much power. Seven in 10 Americans in 2019 agreed that businesses can do things more efficiently than the federal government.” The survey comes after President-elect Donald Trump won the White House and issued broad, sweeping plans to decrease the scope of the federal government. To accomplish this task, Trump appointed businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and billionaire Elon Musk to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency. “Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the ‘Save America’ Movement,’” Trump said in his announcement. Both Ramaswamy and Musk have publicly issued scathing remarks about the waste of federal resources currently occurring in Washington, D.C. Ramaswamy, for instance, has laid out a specific plan on how thousands of federal workers could be fired. The pair of businessmen have said publicly DOGE could cut $2 trillion in federal spending. Ramaswamy and Musk visited Capitol Hill on Thursday to meet with lawmakers to discuss the potential cuts, which could even include ideas as drastic as eliminating the Department of Education and returning that responsibility to the states. Trump's allies have also discussed cutting spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, which are seen by Trump's camp as taxpayer-funded investment in woke ideology. Whether such stark actions would be supported by Americans remains unclear, but for now the latest polling shows Americans want something to be done. On top of that, Americans’ desire for smaller government seems to be more than a momentary political phase. “Gallup has asked this question annually over the past 24 years. On average, 52% of Americans have said the government is doing too much, compared with 42% saying the government should do more...” Gallup said. “Only twice have more Americans chosen the ‘government should do more’ alternative over the ‘government doing too much’ alternative -- in 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and in 2020 after the outbreak of COVID-19.”Toronto OnlyFans model, 22, jokes about pulling plug on hospitalized boyfriend, 85

BERNAMA-DPA – Banning smartphones in schools significantly enhances students’ social well-being, according to a recent meta-analysis of five international studies. “The children feel happier and enjoy school more because they spend their breaks talking and playing with each other,” explained co-author of the analysis and Professor of School Pedagogy at the University of Augsburg, Germany Klaus Zierer. Published in the Switzerland-based journal Education Sciences, the analysis looked at studies from Norway, Sweden, Spain, England and the Czech Republic. If students use their smartphone and social media in school, they’re exposed to the risk of cyberbullying there too, Zierer noted. “So a smartphone ban makes school a safe space against it.” A smartphone ban may also have a positive effect on academic performance, he said, although this was difficult to measure in the studies that were examined. “A smartphone ban alone won’t improve learning, of course,” remarked Zierer, but said it at least eliminates disruptions to students’ concentration caused by surreptitiously looking at the devices during class. While Zierer believes smartphones have no place at all in primary school, he said the older that children become, the greater their personal responsibility and media literacy need to be. “The key is to oversee a ban so that it’s not just a rigid framework, but eventually makes checks unnecessary.” BARCELONA (AP) – Try saying “no” when a child asks for a smartphone. What comes after, parents everywhere can attest, begins with some variation of, “Everyone has one. Why can’t I?” But what if no preteen in sight has one – and what if having a smartphone was weird? That’s the endgame of an increasing number of parents across Europe who are concerned by evidence that smartphone use among young kids jeopardises their safety and mental health – and share the conviction that there’s strength in numbers. From Spain to Britain and Ireland, parents are flooding WhatsApp and Telegram groups with plans not just to keep smartphones out of schools, but to link arms and refuse to buy young kids the devices before – or even into – their teenage years. After being inspired by a conversation in a Barcelona park with other mums, Elisabet García Permanyer started a chat group last fall to share information on the perils of Internet access for children with families at her kids’ school. The group, called ‘Adolescence Free of Mobile Phones’, quickly expanded and now includes over 10,000 members. The most engaged parents are pushing for fellow parents to agree not to get their kids smartphones until they are 16. After organising online, they facilitate real-world talks among concerned parents to further their crusade. “When I started this, I just hoped I would find four other families who thought like me, but it took off and kept growing, growing and growing,” García Permanyer said. “My goal was to try to join forces with other parents so we could push back the point when smartphones arrive. I said, ‘I am going to try so that my kids are not the only ones who don’t have one’.” It isn’t just parents. Police and public health experts were sounding the alarm about a spike of violent and pornographic videos watched by children via handheld devices. Spain’s government took note of the momentum and banned smartphones entirely from elementary schools in January. Now they can only be turned on in high school, which starts at age 12, if a teacher deems it necessary for an educational activity. The movement in Britain gained steam this year after the mother of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey, who was killed by two teenagers last year, began demanding that kids under 16 be blocked from accessing social media on smartphones. “It feels like we all know (buying smartphones) is a bad decision for our kids, but that the social norm has not yet caught up,” Daisy Greenwell, a Suffolk, England-area mother of three kids under age 10, posted to her Instagram earlier this year. “What if we could switch the social norm so that in our school, our town, our country, it was an odd choice to make to give your child a smartphone at 11? What if we could hold off until they’re 14, or 16?” She and a friend, Clare Reynolds, set up a WhatsApp group called Parents United for a Smartphone-Free Childhood, with three people on it. Within four days, 2,000 people had joined the group, requiring Greenwell and Reynolds to split off dozens of groups by locality. Now there’s a chat group for every British county. Parents rallying to ban smartphones from young children have a long way to go to change what’s considered “normal”. By the time they’re 12, most children have smartphones, statistics from all three countries show. In Spain, a quarter of children have a cellphone by age 10, and almost half by 11. At 12, this share rises to 75 per cent. British media regulator Ofcom said 55 per cent of kids in the United Kingdom (UK) owned a smartphone between ages eight and 11, with the figure rising to 97 per cent at age 12. Parents and schools that have succeeded in flipping the paradigm in their communities told The Associated Press (AP) the change became possible the moment they understood that they were not alone. In Greystones, Ireland, that moment came after all eight primary school principals in town signed and posted a letter last year that discouraged parents from buying their students smartphones. Then the parents themselves voluntarily signed written pledges, promising to refrain from letting their young kids have the devices. “The discussion went away almost overnight,” said Christina Capatina, 38, a Greystones parent of two preteen daughters who signed the pledge and says there were almost no smartphones in schools this academic year. Something like a consensus has built for years among institutions, governments, parents and others that smartphone use by children is linked to bullying, suicidal ideation, anxiety and loss of concentration necessary for learning. China moved last year to limit children’s use of smartphones, while France has in place a ban on smartphones in schools for kids aged six to 15. The push to control smartphones in Spain comes amid a surge in cases of children viewing online pornography, sharing videos of sexual violence, or creating “deep fake” pornographic images of female classmates using generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Spain’s government said that 25 per cent of kids 12 and under and 50 per cent of kids 15 and under have been exposed to online pornography. The dangers have produced school bans on smartphones and online safety laws. But those don’t address what kids do in off hours. “What I try to emphasise to other principals is the importance of joining up with the school next door to you,” said Principal of St Patrick’s National School Rachel Harper, one of the eight in Greystones to encourage parents to refrain from smartphones for their kids. “There’s a bit more strength that way, in that all the parents in the area are talking about it.” The home isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic offered a firsthand glimpse of their kids staring at screens and getting clever about hiding what they were seeing there – and what was finding them. But if the kids can’t have smartphones, are the parents cutting back their own online time? That’s tough, multiple parents said, because they’re managing families and work online.