Planned Parenthood is reporting a post-election surge of interest in Minnesota and neighboring states among women seeking long-acting birth control and men seeking vasectomies. Concerns about potential threats to access under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration has prompted some young adults to take action before he takes office in January, said Ruth Richardson, chief executive of Planned Parenthood North Central States. The St. Paul-based provider of reproductive health services has filled all appointments through January for men seeking a vasectomy. “People want to ensure they can get access to these things while they know that they can,” Richardson said. The response is based on uncertainty as much as facts. Trump was noncommittal during his campaign on reproductive health topics, hinting that he might let states continue to set their own abortion policies rather than pursue a federal ban or limit. He suggested at one point that he might pursue a federal policy limiting access to birth control, before pledging later on the same day on social media to “never advocate imposing restrictions on birth control.” Calls to Planned Parenthood for appointments regarding long-acting birth control such as intrauterine devices (IUDs) nonetheless jumped 150% in Minnesota and the rest of the region after the Nov. 5 election. Google similarly reported a surge Nov. 6 in online searches for “birth control” and “is birth control going to be banned,” particularly in historically conservative states such as Indiana, Mississippi and West Virginia. Richardson wasn’t surprised. Calls to Planned Parenthood for long-acting birth control reached peak levels in early 2017 after Trump began his first term as president. They gradually declined during the pandemic until a new surge in July 2022, when the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v. Wade decision that had preserved abortion access nationwide. Reactions to the election results also weren’t surprising given the high amount of stress among voters. Seven in 10 Americans cited the election in one recent survey as a significant source of stress in their lives. “The landscape that we have right now is ever-shifting in terms of what people have access to” for birth control, said Richardson, noting that changes are just as likely to come from court rulings as they are from Congress or the president. No candidate discussed limiting access to vasectomies. About one in 10 U.S. men seek these common sterility procedures, most of them younger men who don’t want to be a parent or married middle-age men who don’t want more children. Michigan researchers documented a surge in vasectomy consults and procedures after the overturn of Roe v. Wade in 2022, more so among men who were single or had no children. Planned Parenthood isn’t alone in seeing patients taking action when they think political changes could threaten access. Allina Health midwife Kathrine Simon said her clinic in the past has received more requests from women for new or extended forms of long-acting birth control after significant court rulings or changes in federal or state leadership. Allina did not provide information for this report on appointments or requests after the most recent election. Get local news delivered to your inbox!5jili 。

Buy, Sell Or Hold: Paytm, HCLTech, SBI, Axis Bank, Cochin Shipyard — Ask ProfitFormer President Jimmy Carter was remembered for his leadership and commitment to public service following his death. Carter died on Sunday at his home in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100. RELATED STORY | Former President Jimmy Carter dies at age 100 Jimmy Carter Tributes Bill and Hillary Clinton: Hillary and I mourn the passing of Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others—until the very end. Statement from President Clinton and Secretary Clinton on the Passing of President Jimmy Carter pic.twitter.com/1Ejol6yjav — Angel Ureña (@angelurena) December 29, 2024 Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: President Carter's faith in the American people and his belief in the power of kindness and humility leave a strong legacy. He taught us that the strength of a leader lies not in rhetoric but in action, not in personal gain but in service to others. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: President Carter served during times of tension and uncertainty, both at home and abroad. But his calm spirit and deep faith seemed unshakeable. Jimmy Carter served as our commander-in-chief for four years, but he served as the beloved, unassuming Sunday school teacher at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia for forty. And his humble devotion leaves us little doubt which of those two important roles he prized the most. U.S. Sen. Jon Osoff (D-GA): Among his lifetime of service and countless accomplishments, President Carter will be remembered for his commitment to democracy and human rights, his enduring faith, his philanthropic leadership, and his deep love of family U.S. Sen. Rafael Warnock (D-GA): President Carter was one of my heroes. His leadership was driven by love, his life’s project grounded in compassion and a commitment to human dignity. For those of us who have the privilege of representing our communities in elected office, Jimmy Carter is a shining example of what it means to make your faith come alive through the noble work of public service. U.S. Sen. John Thun (R-SD): President Carter dedicated his life to serving the people of Georgia and our great country – as a naval officer, a governor, and as the 39th President of the United States. From peanut farming to the presidency and every step in between, his wife Rosalynn was by his side.Jimmy Carter’s critics turned his name into a synonym for weakness over the Iranian hostage crisis. But by any measure, he also scored major achievements on the world stage through his mix of moralism and painstaking personal diplomacy. The 39th president of the United States, who died at age 100 on Sunday, transformed the Middle East by brokering the Camp David Accords, which established an enduring and once inconceivable peace between Israel and its most serious adversary at the time, Egypt. Carter again brought a sense of righteousness and nearly obsessive attention to detail to negotiate the return of the Panama Canal to Panama, defying furor by US conservatives. In two decisions with lengthy reverberations, Carter followed up on Richard Nixon’s opening by recognizing communist China, and he began arming jihadists in Afghanistan who fought back against the Soviet Union, which would collapse a decade later. But Carter was crushed by Ronald Reagan in the 1980 election in no small part due to foreign affairs after religious hard-liners toppled Iran’s shah and seized US embassy staff, whose 444 days in captivity were broadcast nightly on US television. Carter ordered an aborted rescue mission in which eight US troops died in a helicopter crash. Asked at a 2015 news conference about his biggest regret, Carter replied: “I wish I’d sent one more helicopter to get the hostages — and we would have rescued them and I would have been reelected.” – Nagging ‘weak’ attack – The Iran debacle led to attacks that Carter was “weak,” an image he would struggle to shake off as Republicans cast him as the archetypal contrast to their muscular brand of foreign policy. The former peanut farmer’s public persona did little to help, from a widely panned speech pleading for shared sacrifice to an incident that went the pre-internet version of viral in which Carter shooed away a confrontational rabbit from his fishing boat. Robert Strong, a professor at Washington and Lee University who wrote a book on Carter’s foreign policy, said the late president had been inept in public relations by allowing the “weak” label to stick. “The people who worked with Carter said exactly the opposite — he was stubborn, fiercely independent and anything but weak,” Strong said. “That doesn’t mean he was always right, but he wasn’t someone who held his finger in the wind allowing whatever the current opinion was to win.” Strong said that Carter defied his political advisors and even his wife Rosalynn by pushing quickly on the Panama Canal, convinced of the injustice of the 1903 treaty that gave the meddlesome United States the zone in perpetuity. “Every president says, ‘I don’t care about public opinion, I’ll really do what’s right,'” Strong said. “Most of the time when they say that, it’s not true. To a surprising extent with Carter, it was true.” – Carter and Iran – Carter, a devout Christian, vowed to elevate human rights after the cold realpolitik of Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Years after the fact, he could name political prisoners freed following his intervention in their cases, and took pride in coaxing the Soviet Union to let thousands of Jewish citizens emigrate. But the rights focus came to a head on Iran when Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi — a Western ally whose autocratic rule by decree brought economic and social modernization — faced growing discontent. Reflecting debate throughout the administration, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Carter’s more hawkish national security advisor, believed the shah should crush the protests — a time-tested model in the Middle East. Secretary of state Cyrus Vance, who would later quit in opposition to the ill-fated helicopter raid, wanted reforms by the shah. Stuart Eizenstat, a top adviser to Carter, acknowledged mistakes on Iran, which the president had called an “island of stability” on a New Year’s Eve visit a little more than a year before the revolution that ultimately saw the shah flee the country. But Eizenstat said Carter could not have known how much the shah had lost support or that he was to die from cancer within months. “It was the single worst intelligence failure in American history,” Eizenstat said in 2018 as he presented a book assessing Carter as a success. – Peacemaker legacy – Uniquely among modern US presidents, much of Carter’s legacy came after he left the White House. He won the Nobel Peace Prize more than two decades after his defeat at the polls. The Carter Center, which he established in his home state of Georgia, has championed democracy and global health, observing elections in dozens of countries and virtually eradicating guinea worm, a painful infectious parasite. Carter also took risks that few others of his stature would. He paid a landmark visit to North Korea in 1994, helping avert conflict, and infuriated Israel by asking if its treatment of the Palestinians constituted “apartheid.” But the accusations of weakness never went away. Conservative academic William Russell Mead, in a 2010 essay in Foreign Policy magazine, called on then-president Barack Obama to avoid “Carter Syndrome,” which he described as “weakness and indecision” and “incoherence and reversals.” Carter personally responded in a letter that listed accomplishments on the Camp David accords, China, the Soviet Union and human rights, while describing the fall of Iran’s shah as “obviously unpredictable.” “Although it is true that we did not become involved in military combat during my presidency, I do not consider this a sign of weakness or reason for apology,” he wrote. 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.

A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the futureAP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:49 p.m. ESTNone

Man City 3-3 Feyenoord: Pep Guardiola labels team "fragile", explains cuts to his face and head after Etihad collapse

Is anybody prepared to stand and fight Donald Trump? On Wednesday, Christopher Wray, the F.B.I. director whom Trump had vowed to fire as soon as he returned to the White House, announced that he would preëmptively quit in January, with nearly three years left in his ten-year term, rather than risk a public battle. Going out the door with him will be the crucial concept of a politically independent directorship, enshrined in law by Congress in the nineteen-seventies to protect against just such a scenario of a President seeking to install a partisan loyalist in the country’s most powerful law-enforcement post. “This is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray,” Wray said in a statement, “while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.” He did not elaborate on how his self-defenestration would preserve the institution’s values and principles from the threats of its incoming director, the Trump loyalist Kash Patel , who said in an interview in September that his first act upon taking over the F.B.I. would be to shut down the agency’s main building “and reopen it the next day as a museum of the deep state.” Wray is hardly the only official to fold in the face of Trump’s early threats. On Capitol Hill this week, after days of attacks by a MAGA media mob, Senator Joni Ernst said that she would support Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth , through his confirmation process—a striking change in tone for the Iowa Republican, herself a military veteran and survivor of sexual assault who had previously expressed concerns about a Pentagon nominee who has said women should not serve in combat roles and has been accused of sexual assault, alcohol abuse, and financial mismanagement. For what it’s worth, it’s not yet clear that Ernst will ultimately vote for Hegseth, who has denied wrongdoing, though Senator Tom Cotton, a key Trump ally in the Senate, now predicts that all of Trump’s controversial nominees, including Hegseth, will be confirmed. What is clear is that bullying by Trump, or on his behalf, works. Just ask Mark Zuckerberg. This week, his company, Meta, made its first-ever donation to a Presidential Inauguration fund, chipping in a million dollars to Trump’s January celebration, despite—or, more likely, because of—Trump’s bashing Zuckerberg as “Zuckerschmuck” and attacking Meta’s platforms as biased against him. With Trump still riding a post-election high, some of the people and institutions that seem headed for an inevitable collision with the returning President have so far been remarkably wary of clapping back at him, even when presented with the most provocative of Trump’s insults. Consider the fight that Trump has already picked with Canada, threatening to impose tariffs of up to twenty-five per cent on its imports along with those of Mexico—a potentially crippling blow to both their economies. Earlier this week, Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, said that his country would “respond to unfair tariffs” but he had not yet figured out how—hardly a flaming insult. Nonetheless, Trump reacted to this by threatening to annex Canada as the fifty-first state and taunting the Canadian leader as “governor” in a social-media post. Trudeau, who often drew Trump’s ire in his first term as well, did not respond in kind. Instead, he was hard at work on a plan to mollify Trump’s concerns about the U.S.-Canada border, including adding police dogs and drones to a largely unmilitarized zone, apparently in hope of staving off Trump’s threatened tariffs. Some of Trump’s presumptive targets are not even waiting for his expected threats. At NATO headquarters in Brussels this week, word came that the alliance, which Trump had once threatened to leave entirely if member states did not start contributing more to their defense budgets, was considering a new target for members: spending three per cent of G.D.P. on defense each year, up from the current two-per-cent goal. The move, which would come at a time when the heightened threats to European security from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine require significant new military investment, appears to be an effort to preëmpt Trump’s inevitable demand for three-per-cent spending—an idea his advisers floated over the summer—and which he’ll likely take credit for anyway in the event that it happens. And why wait? Elbridge Colby, a former Trump Pentagon official reportedly in line for a senior post in his next Administration, went ahead and claimed the win even before any formal decision: Trump’s “common sense policy is getting results,” he posted on X, on Thursday. Are these all examples of preëmptive surrender—“ obeying in advance ,” as the Yale historian Timothy Snyder has put it—or is something more strategic going on here? As much as Trump loves being fawned over, the spectre of so many prospective rivals caving in so quickly creates its own sort of dilemma for a leader who craves conflict to sustain his Presidency and his political movement. Trump thrives on such fights, seeks them out, and where they do not exist, he will move swiftly to create them. Conflict is integral to who he is, as a person and as a politician. No doubt, there will come a point when at least some of those he has targeted, whether neighboring states whose economic health is threatened by his protectionist policies or government officials whose integrity and independence are compromised by his extralegal demands, push back. (Republican senators, maybe not so much.) Every lawyer in Washington, it seems, is preparing to fight the new Trump Administration in court if lobbying and favor-seeking don’t work out first. I suspect that much of what we’re seeing in the early response to Trump represents a collective conclusion that resistance to him eight years ago did little good, and often much harm, to those who did the resisting. The classic example of this was Angela Merkel, then the German Chancellor, whose statement congratulating Trump on his victory in 2016 essentially put Trump on notice that she would be watching for him to violate norms of democracy and common decency. Merkel, to no one’s surprise, became perhaps Trump’s least favorite Western leader. In 2024, it is entirely rational to conclude that lecturing Trump will hardly produce favorable results. It’s understandable, too, that many of his detractors are simply exhausted by the continual demands of standing against the man. And yet it’s striking how far many have pivoted to the other extreme. Is there no other course between going to war with Trump and accommodating him? There is also a widespread view that Trump is more bluster than bite. Eight years on, even many of the President-elect’s fiercest foes now recognize that he presents them with a unique blend of incendiary hyperbole and actual menace. They know he did not build the wall on America’s southern border or get Mexico to pay for it. So maybe better to wait and mobilize against the threats that Trump seems specifically willing to follow through on. And yet I can’t help but worry that this post-election transition to Trump’s second term is merely another moment when hope seems to be triumphing over experience—whether it’s backers of Ukraine looking for evidence, however scant, that Trump won’t abandon them to a deal with Russia on Vladimir Putin’s terms, or opponents of “Mass Deportation Now” who think it will simply be too costly and complicated for Trump to execute. Just this week, he said he wanted to pardon the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol on his behalf four years ago—and to lock up the members of Congress who investigated the riot. Is it really such a good idea to believe he won’t try it? Don’t forget the reason Trump picks all these fights—because he wants to be a winner. Well, he’s beaten Chris Wray without a fight. Now what? For Trump 2.0, just as in all his previous incarnations, there will always be new enemies to slay. ♦ New Yorker Favorites A man was murdered in cold blood and you’re laughing ? The best albums of 2024. Little treats galore: a holiday gift guide . How Maria Callas lost her voice . An objectively objectionable grammatical pet peeve . What happened when the Hallmark Channel “ leaned into Christmas .” Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker .Arsenal deliver Champions League statement of intent— Arteta

Direct Line Insurance Group (LON:DLG) Hits New 1-Year High – Still a Buy?The Metropolitan Education District (MetroED) has been awarded a grant of almost $1 million from a state program that helps community colleges expand career technical education and workforce training to prepare students for high-wage employment in industries that meet regional labor market needs. MetroED’s Silicon Valley Career Technical Education (SVCTE) received $989,645 through the K12 Strong Workforce Program. This funding will support SVCTE’s efforts to meet the increasing demand for green technology, providing students with skills needed for sustainable industries. These industries include electric vehicle technology, eco-friendly HVAC systems, fire science with environmental solutions and clean diesel technologies. MetroED provides career technical education for high school and adult students in Santa Clara County. It is overseen by a joint powers agreement that includes the Campbell Union High School District. Its educational partners include Evergreen Community College, Mission College, San Jose City College and West Valley College. The Valley Water Board of Directors on Dec. 10 elected Tony Estremera as the board chair for 2025. Richard P. Santos was elected as vice chair. Estremera has been a member of the Valley Water Board since 1996 and is serving his fifth term as chair. He represents District 6, which encompasses areas of Central and East San Jose, including the Mayfair neighborhood. Santos is beginning his fifth term as vice chair. He represents District 3, which includes Alviso, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Milpitas and the Berryessa/Alum Rock area of San Jose.Kerala CM accuses Centre of vindictive attitude on landslide-hit Wayanad

House passes bill limiting energy efficiency mandates on home laundry machines

Maple Leafs, Auston Matthews believed to have reached compromise on his health

By . . Donald Trump hit out Tuesday at Joe Biden for commuting the sentences of almost every American federal prisoner on death row, as the president-elect prepared to replace the Democrat in the White House. President Biden, in his final month in office, announced Monday he was converting the death sentences of 37 of the 40 inmates awaiting federal execution to life without the possibility of parole. They included nine people convicted of murdering fellow prisoners, four for murders committed during bank robberies and one who killed a prison guard. “Joe Biden just commuted the Death Sentence on 37 of the worst killers in our Country,” Trump posted on Truth Social, his social media platform. “When you hear the acts of each, you won’t believe that he did this,” he added. “Makes no sense. Relatives and friends are further devastated. They can’t believe this is happening!” Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.

Playing on Christmas is extra special for Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns this year

(The Center Square) – Homeowners in the market for washers and dryers may have better-performing options to choose from in the near future due to a bill limiting the extent of energy efficiency mandates on laundry appliances passing the U.S. House. The Republican-led House Resolution 1612 , or Liberty in Laundry Act, would prohibit the Secretary of Energy from enforcing energy conservation standards for clothes washers or dryers that “are not cost-effective or technologically feasible.” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., who introduced the legislation, said the move is a response to the “slew of woke, ‘environmental’ nonsense rulemaking attempts” by the Biden administration and U.S. Department of Energy. “I have spent much of my time in Congress fighting back the federal government’s vast overreach into the lives of hardworking Americans,” Ogles announced after the bill’s passage Tuesday. “Americans should be able to do their laundry in peace without the input of Big Brother.” Earlier this year, the DOE finalized new updated standards for residential clothes washers and dryers which aim to cut costs and pollution. It estimates the regulations will reduce nearly 71 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions–equivalent to the combined annual emissions of nearly 9 million homes–and up to $39 billion on Americans’ energy and water bills over the next 30 years. House Democrats opposed the legislation's passage, saying "absolutely no one" stands to benefit from the law and accused Republicans of trying to curry favor with special interest groups. "H.R. 7673 guts popular energy efficiency standards for laundry machines – standards that save Americans money on their utility bills and reduce dangerous greenhouse gas pollution at the same time," said Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr., D-N.J. "These efficiency standards create certainty for manufacturers and they protect consumers from rising costs. And, in the case of these laundry machine standards, they also reduce water use – a benefit that could greatly aid drought-prone regions around the nation." But the less electricity and water laundry appliances use, the less effectively they tend to perform, according to an Oct. 2024 report by the Institute for Energy Research. “Historically, appliances meeting Energy Department standards have often underperformed and have higher costs,” the report stated. “The Biden-Harris administration is imposing a series of regulations that are raising appliance prices and compromising quality for homeowners.” Unless the bill is signed into law, laundry appliance makers have until March 2028 to comply with the new rules. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, sports, arts & entertainment, state legislature, CFD news, and more.How long can US stocks keep up this momentum?

AP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:49 p.m. ESTDE BEERS GROUP LAUNCHES HOLIDAY CAMPAIGN FOR NATURAL DIAMONDS