'We're not afraid of anyone,' says Idah as Celtic gear up for golden opportunity in Champions League By STEPHEN MCGOWAN Published: 22:30 GMT, 24 November 2024 | Updated: 22:30 GMT, 24 November 2024 e-mail View comments Adam Idah insists Celtic have nothing to fear when they go head to head with Europe’s elite in the Champions League . The Parkhead side face Club Brugge in Glasgow on Wednesday, with a golden opportunity to clinch a place in the last-16 play-offs. Currently on seven points after four games, ten points should be enough to secure a finish in the top 24 of the new league format. Estimates suggest that 16 points could even be enough to reach the quarter-finals automatically and, with fixtures against Dinamo Zagreb, Young Boys and Aston Villa still to come, striker Idah sees a real opportunity to improve on the Euro woes of past seasons. ‘We feel we can compete with anyone,’ said the Irishman. ‘Dortmund (last month’s 7-1 defeat in Germany) wasn’t the best but, before the game, we had confidence we could win. ‘That’s what this season has been about. We are not afraid to play anyone. Idah responded with two late goals after he had been the target of missiles from the crowd The substitute celebrates with James Forrest after making it 3-0 at Tynecastle on Saturday Idah gets his second goal in a 4-1 victory over Hearts by converting a penalty in stoppage time ‘You saw that in the Leipzig game (a 3-1 win for Celtic). We showed what we were there to do and we feel we can go head-to-head with any team.’ Currently second in the Belgian Pro League behind Genk, Brugge are unbeaten in their last five games in all competitions — bouncing back from a 3-1 defeat to AC Milan in the San Siro by overcoming Aston Villa at home thanks to a bizarre Tyrone Mings handball. ‘We do relish the home games,’ added Idah, who scored his first ever Champions League goal in the 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava on match day one. ‘Every time you have a Champions League game, it’s really exciting — and you want to win these games. ‘We need to keep pushing and hopefully doing well.’ Largely restricted to being an impact substitute, Idah took his tally for the season to seven with a late brace in the 4-1 win over Hearts at Tynecastle. Scoring a penalty atoned for a miss from 12 yards in Celtic’s last domestic defeat at the same venue in March. Targeted by missiles on Saturday after grabbing his first goal to make it 3-0, the striker said he took revenge the best way he could. ‘I enjoyed it,’ he said. ‘They gave me a bit when I was warming up so I gave it back. ‘I could probably buy all my Christmas presents with the amount of coins on the pitch! ‘But it’s all a bit of banter.’ Share or comment on this article: 'We're not afraid of anyone,' says Idah as Celtic gear up for golden opportunity in Champions League e-mail Add commentDriven to Win: 11 TV Characters Who Define Ambition
Photo: The Canadian Press Activists participate in a demonstration for climate finance at the COP29 U.N. Climate Summit, Friday, Nov. 22, 2024, in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the wee hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It's a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still deeply unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta called it “an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” but added that the poorest and most vulnerable nations are “rightfully disappointed that wealthier countries didn’t put more money on the table when billions of people’s lives are at stake.” The summit was supposed to end on Friday evening but negotiations spiraled on through early Sunday. With countries on opposite ends of a massive chasm, tensions ran high as delegations tried to close the gap in expectations. Here's how they got there: What was the finance deal agreed at climate talks? Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But delegations more optimistic about the agreement said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future. The text included a call for all parties to work together using “all public and private sources” to get closer to the $1.3 trillion per year goal by 2035. That means also pushing for international mega-banks, funded by taxpayer dollars, to help foot the bill. And it means, hopefully, that companies and private investors will follow suit on channeling cash toward climate action. The agreement is also a critical step toward helping countries on the receiving end create more ambitious targets to limit or cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that are due early next year. It’s part of the plan to keep cutting pollution with new targets every five years, which the world agreed to at the U.N. talks in Paris in 2015. The Paris agreement set the system of regular ratcheting up climate fighting ambition as away to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world is already at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and carbon emissions keep rising. What will the money be spent on? The deal decided in Baku replaces a previous agreement from 15 years ago that charged rich nations $100 billion a year to help the developing world with climate finance. The new number has similar aims: it will go toward the developing world's long laundry list of to-dos to prepare for a warming world and keep it from getting hotter. That includes paying for the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. Countries need funds to build up the infrastructure needed to deploy technologies like wind and solar power on a large scale. Communities hard-hit by extreme weather also want money to adapt and prepare for events like floods, typhoons and fires. Funds could go toward improving farming practices to make them more resilient to weather extremes, to building houses differently with storms in mind, to helping people move from the hardest-hit areas and to help leaders improve emergency plans and aid in the wake of disasters. The Philippines, for example, has been hammered by six major storms in less than a month , bringing to millions of people howling wind, massive storm surges and catastrophic damage to residences, infrastructure and farmland. “Family farmers need to be financed," said Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers Association. She described how many have already had to deal with millions of dollars of storm damage, some of which includes trees that won't again bear fruit for months or years, or animals that die, wiping out a main source of income. “If you think of a rice farmer who depends on his or her one hectare farm, rice land, ducks, chickens, vegetables, and it was inundated, there was nothing to harvest,” she said. Why was it so hard to get a deal? Election results around the world that herald a change in climate leadership, a few key players with motive to stall the talks and a disorganized host country all led to a final crunch that left few happy with a flawed compromise. The ending of COP29 is "reflective of the harder geopolitical terrain the world finds itself in,” said Li Shuo of the Asia Society. He cited Trump's recent victory in the US — with his promises to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement — as one reason why the relationship between China and the EU will be more consequential for global climate politics moving forward. Developing nations also faced some difficulties agreeing in the final hours, with one Latin American delegation member saying that their group didn't feel properly consulted when small island states had last-minute meetings to try to break through to a deal. Negotiators from across the developing world took different tacks on the deal until they finally agreed to compromise. Meanwhile, activists ramped up the pressure: many urged negotiators to stay strong and asserted that no deal would be better than a bad deal. But ultimately the desire for a deal won out. Some also pointed to the host country as a reason for the struggle. Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said Friday that “this COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory,” calling it “one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.” The presidency said in a statement, “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator. We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.” Shuo retains hope that the opportunities offered by a green economy “make inaction self-defeating” for countries around the world, regardless of their stance on the decision. But it remains to be seen whether the UN talks can deliver more ambition next year. In the meantime, “this COP process needs to recover from Baku,” Shuo said.Adam Zyglis: Buffalo Snow DayTrump names Kari Lake as choice for VOA director
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Four pairs of New Balance trainers you can get for 40% off right nowFormer National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that Republicans had to “disabuse themselves of this strange affection for Vladimir Putin.” McMaster said, “This is what I can’t understand, Margaret. There are some people in the Republican Party these days who kind of tend to parrot Putin’s talking points.” Host Margaret Brennan asked, “Why?” McMaster said, “I don’t if it’s because they’re draw to him and see him as a defender of Western Civilization, the shirtless guy on horseback but they’ve got to disabuse themselves of this strange affection for Vladimir Putin. You know, who is not going to stop in his efforts to restore Russia to national greatness at our expense. That’s what he’s obsessed with. He’s obsessed with re-establish the Russian empire. So he has aspirations that go far beyond anything that’s in reaction to what we do.” He added, “The only thing that stops him really is strength, Margaret.” Brennan said, “And you wrote in your book that you didn’t understand Donald Trump’s fascination with Vladimir Putin. Quickly, Sebastian Gorka is going to be the Senior Director for Counterterrorism, deputy assistant to the president. Is he a good person to advise on security?” McMaster said, “No, no, he’s not, Margaret. But I think that the and others will determine that quickly soon after he gets into that job.” Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN
Union minister Jitendra Singh holds 'public durbar' in J&K's Kathua
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Kroger and Albertsons are spending billions to reward shareholders after their blocked mergerMobile Concrete Mixer Market Analysis of Major Segments and Future Opportunity Assessment Hits at CAGR of 5.6% by 2030 11-25-2024 07:00 PM CET | Business, Economy, Finances, Banking & Insurance Press release from: www.alliedmarketresearch.com Rise in government expenditures for infrastructural development, high yield and decrease in raw material wastage, and easy transportation of the mixture have boosted the growth of the global mobile concrete mixer market. Demand for energy-efficient and eco-friendly mixers is expected to open lucrative opportunities for the market players in the future. Some sites require fresh concrete that is prepared on construction sites itself to avoid wastage, which eventually saves construction cost occurring due to wastage of concrete. Hence, owing to this demand, mobile concrete mixers are used to prepare concrete from raw material such as sand, cement, water, gravel, and sometimes binding adhesives. The concrete is than discharged though outlet nozzle mounted on front or back of the truck or trailer as per design. Get Sample PDF of This Research: https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/request-sample/12232 The mobile concrete mixer market size was valued at $6,755.0 million in 2020, and is expected to reach $ 11,812.2 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 5.6% from 2021 to 2030. Major driving factors of the mobile concrete mixer market are extensive increase in investments by governments, majorly in developing countries on constructing new infrastructures such as roads, dams, tunnels, residential & commercial buildings, and other public infrastructures. In addition, ease of transportation of concrete in remote areas where roads are not well built or construction sites that have no proper access drives the mobile concrete mixer market. Decrease in wastage of concrete saves construction project costs and eventually helps in saving natural resources. However, cost of mobile concrete mixers is slightly high. Further, it also needs regular maintenance for its smooth working. Thus, high investment and maintenance costs acts as restraint for the mobile concrete mixer market growth. Industries are gradually back on track and vaccine discovery has led to recovery of the mobile concrete mixer market. On the contrary, introduction of advanced trucks and electric operated drums and engines help conservation of environment, which is a major opportunity for growth of the mobile concrete mixer market during the forecast period. Enquire Before Buying @ https://www.alliedmarketresearch.com/purchase-enquiry/12232 Top Players: The major players profiled in the mobile concrete mixers market include AB Volvo, KYB Corporation, Liebherr-International AG, Navister Inc., Oshkosh Corporation, Sany Group, Schwing Stetter Group, Sinotruk, Tata Motors and Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. Major companies in the market have adopted strategies such as business expansion and partnership to offer better products and services to customers in the mobile concrete mixers market. Key Findings of The Study: By capacity, the 6-10 m3 segment was the highest revenue contributor in 2020. By product type, the standard segment generated the highest revenue in 2020. By chassis type, the truck segment generated the highest revenue in 2020. By region, Asia-Pacific generated the highest revenue in 2020. 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Darius Tahir | (TNS) KFF Health News President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to run the sprawling government agency that administers Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace — celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz — recently held broad investments in health care, tech, and food companies that would pose significant conflicts of interest. Oz’s holdings, some shared with family, included a stake in UnitedHealth Group worth as much as $600,000, as well as shares of pharmaceutical firms and tech companies with business in the health care sector, such as Amazon. Collectively, Oz’s investments total tens of millions of dollars, according to financial disclosures he filed during his failed 2022 run for a Pennsylvania U.S. Senate seat. Trump said Tuesday he would nominate Oz as administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The agency’s scope is huge: CMS oversees coverage for more than 160 million Americans, nearly half the population. Medicare alone accounts for approximately $1 trillion in annual spending, with over 67 million enrollees. UnitedHealth Group is one of the largest health care companies in the nation and arguably the most important business partner of CMS, through which it is the leading provider of commercial health plans available to Medicare beneficiaries. UnitedHealth also offers managed-care plans under Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for low-income people, and sells plans on government-run marketplaces set up via the Affordable Care Act. Oz also had smaller stakes in CVS Health, which now includes the insurer Aetna, and in the insurer Cigna. It’s not clear if Oz, a heart surgeon by training, still holds investments in health care companies, or if he would divest his shares or otherwise seek to mitigate conflicts of interest should he be confirmed by the Senate. Reached by phone on Wednesday, he said he was in a Zoom meeting and declined to comment. An assistant did not reply to an email message with detailed questions. “It’s obvious that over the years he’s cultivated an interest in the pharmaceutical industry and the insurance industry,” said Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group. “That raises a question of whether he can be trusted to act on behalf of the American people.” (The publisher of KFF Health News, David Rousseau, is on the CSPI board .) Oz used his TikTok page on multiple occasions in November to praise Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including their efforts to take on the “illness-industrial complex,” and he slammed “so-called experts like the big medical societies” for dishing out what he called bad nutritional advice. Oz’s positions on health policy have been chameleonic; in 2010, he cut an ad urging Californians to sign up for insurance under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, telling viewers they had a “historic opportunity.” Oz’s 2022 financial disclosures show that the television star invested a substantial part of his wealth in health care and food firms. Were he confirmed to run CMS, his job would involve interacting with giants of the industry that have contributed to his wealth. Given the breadth of his investments, it would be difficult for Oz to recuse himself from matters affecting his assets, if he still holds them. “He could spend his time in a rocking chair” if that happened, Lurie said. In the past, nominees for government positions with similar potential conflicts of interest have chosen to sell the assets or otherwise divest themselves. For instance, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Attorney General Merrick Garland agreed to divest their holdings in relevant, publicly traded companies when they joined the Biden administration. Trump, however, declined in his first term to relinquish control of his own companies and other assets while in office, and he isn’t expected to do so in his second term. He has not publicly indicated concern about his subordinates’ financial holdings. CMS’ main job is to administer Medicare. About half of new enrollees now choose Medicare Advantage, in which commercial insurers provide their health coverage, instead of the traditional, government-run program, according to an analysis from KFF, a health information nonprofit that includes KFF Health News. Proponents of Medicare Advantage say the private plans offer more compelling services than the government and better manage the costs of care. Critics note that Medicare Advantage plans have a long history of costing taxpayers more than the traditional program. UnitedHealth, CVS, and Cigna are all substantial players in the Medicare Advantage market. It’s not always a good relationship with the government. The Department of Justice filed a 2017 complaint against UnitedHealth alleging the company used false information to inflate charges to the government. The case is ongoing. Oz is an enthusiastic proponent of Medicare Advantage. In 2020, he proposed offering Medicare Advantage to all; during his Senate run, he offered a more general pledge to expand those plans. After Trump announced Oz’s nomination for CMS, Jeffrey Singer, a senior fellow at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute, said he was “uncertain about Dr. Oz’s familiarity with health care financing and economics.” Singer said Oz’s Medicare Advantage proposal could require large new taxes — perhaps a 20% payroll tax — to implement. Oz has gotten a mixed reception from elsewhere in Washington. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, the Democrat who defeated Oz in 2022, signaled he’d potentially support his appointment to CMS. “If Dr. Oz is about protecting and preserving Medicare and Medicaid, I’m voting for the dude,” he said on the social platform X. Oz’s investments in companies doing business with the federal government don’t end with big insurers. He and his family also hold hospital stocks, according to his 2022 disclosure, as well as a stake in Amazon worth as much as nearly $2.4 million. (Candidates for federal office are required to disclose a broad range of values for their holdings, not a specific figure.) Amazon operates an internet pharmacy, and the company announced in June that its subscription service is available to Medicare enrollees. It also owns a primary care service , One Medical, that accepts Medicare and “select” Medicare Advantage plans. Oz was also directly invested in several large pharmaceutical companies and, through investments in venture capital funds, indirectly invested in other biotech and vaccine firms. Big Pharma has been a frequent target of criticism and sometimes conspiracy theories from Trump and his allies. Kennedy, whom Trump has said he’ll nominate to be Health and Human Services secretary, is a longtime anti-vaccine activist. During the Biden administration, Congress gave Medicare authority to negotiate with drug companies over their prices. CMS initially selected 10 drugs. Those drugs collectively accounted for $50.5 billion in spending between June 1, 2022, and May 31, 2023, under Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit. At least four of those 10 medications are manufactured by companies in which Oz held stock, worth as much as about $50,000. Related Articles National Politics | Donald Trump Jr. emerges as a political force of his own as he helps his father launch a second term National Politics | The rising price of paying the national debt is a risk for Trump’s promises on growth and inflation National Politics | What to know about Brooke Rollins, Trump’s pick for agriculture secretary National Politics | After Trump’s Project 2025 denials, he is tapping its authors and influencers for key roles National Politics | Republicans push back against Democrats’ claims that Trump intelligence pick Gabbard is compromised Oz may gain or lose financially from other Trump administration proposals. For example, as of 2022, Oz held investments worth as much as $6 million in fertility treatment providers. To counter fears that politicians who oppose abortion would ban in vitro fertilization, Trump floated during his campaign making in vitro fertilization treatment free. It’s unclear whether the government would pay for the services. In his TikTok videos from earlier in November, Oz echoed attacks on the food industry by Kennedy and other figures in his “Make America Healthy Again” movement. They blame processed foods and underregulation of the industry for the poor health of many Americans, concerns shared by many Democrats and more mainstream experts. But in 2022, Oz owned stakes worth as much as $80,000 in Domino’s Pizza, Pepsi, and US Foods, as well as more substantial investments in other parts of the food chain, including cattle; Oz reported investments worth as much as $5.5 million in a farm and livestock, as well as a stake in a dairy-free milk startup. He was also indirectly invested in the restaurant chain Epic Burger. One of his largest investments was in the Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain Wawa, which sells fast food and all manner of ultra-processed snacks. Oz and his wife reported a stake in the company, beloved by many Pennsylvanians, worth as much as $30 million. ©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.Courtland Sutton's surge is helping rookie Bo Nix and the Denver Broncos make a playoff pushGovt urged to scale up education financing to 4pc of GDP Islamabad:“Education cannot be treated as a commodity delegated to private sector rather it is a fundamental right guaranteed by state, for which it must be held accountable”, stressed speakers at a policy dialogue titled ‘Citizen’s Agenda for Gender-Responsive, Inclusive, and Resilient Education’ organised by Society for Access to Quality Education (SAQE) during the 15th annual convention. The theme was ‘People’s Agenda for Transforming Education; from Silos to Systems.’ Zehra Arshad, executive director, SAQE highlighted that addressing the education emergency requires inclusive policy planning with every stakeholder meaningfully engaged and guided by up-to-date gender-disaggregated data. She stated, “Political will remains central to ensuring access to quality education and urged the adoption of a ‘Charter of Education’ to build consensus on long-term education policies.” She called on the government to commit to scaling up education financing to a minimum of 4 per cent of GDP, compared to the current 1.9 per cent, and significantly increase development budget allocations to catalyse inclusive education transformation. State has guaranteed right to education for every child, thus government, state and legislators must be held accountable for the education emergency”, said Huma Chughtai, Member National Assembly. She urged for the adoption of “Charter of Education” to synergise efforts from every actor for sustainable solution of the Education Emergency. Harris Khalique, President of Board of SAQE, pointed out that while Pakistan constitutes 4 per cent of the world’s population, it accounts for 11 per cent of the global out-of-school children population. He noted that political parties have repeatedly committed to scaling up education financing to 4% of GDP, but the allocation remains at 1.9 per cent. “Committing to 4 per cent of GDP allocation to education is the first step toward ensuring justice for every child,” he remarked. Muhammad Ali Kemal, Chief SDGs, Planning Commission emphasised on addressing leakages in education financing along with overall investment in education. He urged for ensuring universal child registration so every child and their rights are acknowledged. Dr Shahid Soroya, Director General, Pakistan Institute of Education informed that National Education Policy Framework has been developed with consensus of provincial authorities to effectively devolve education policy planning to grassroot level and ensure policies reflect local needs.