Appotronics Highlights Role of Laser Technology in Automotive Industry at Prestigious US Trade Conference - TechNode GlobalLiberty the emu's adventure with liberation continues, except now, according to its owner, "He's in emu jail." The critter jokingly named after the Liberty Mutual insurance pitchbird slipped out of its pen at an exotic animals ranch on South Nogales Highway overnight Thursday. The next day gawkers photographed Liberty blocking traffic on the highway and peeking into a car window, near Aerospace Parkway and the entrances to a couple of big Tucson employers including Raytheon. The emu became a bit of a social media sensation here. Just moseying down the highway, as an emu will, on a crisp Tucson morning. Its owner, Tattoo Tattoo (that's his legal name "and the name on my driver's license," he says), had been driving all around the region Friday looking for him, but Liberty was elusive. Liberty the emu with its owner, Tattoo Tattoo, in happier times. Tattoo says he's now heard that Liberty got shooed off the highway and took off onto Tohono O'odham reservation land near Desert Diamond Casino on Valencia Road. From there, Tohono O'odham police reportedly caught him and took him to a tribal animal sanctuary. Tattoo thinks Liberty has been transferred to Arizona Game & Fish, where he hopes to pick him up Monday morning in his truck and trailer. He guesses Liberty was about 2.5 miles from home when caught. "They just wander around like Eeyore all slow and depressed," he affectionately joked. Watch an emu race through the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, Illinois. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter.Wildlife Monitoring Tech Used To Harass, Spy On Women In India
At this stage, it would probably be more of a surprise if Marcus Rashford was ushered back into Manchester United ’s squad than if his current exclusion continued for another game, and possibly longer. His team are struggling for points, four places above the Premier League ’s relegation zone. Should they lose to Newcastle United at Old Trafford on Monday, that will be six defeats in December and the first time they have lost four in a row since 1961. Advertisement Who, though, can confidently predict that Ruben Amorim will bring Rashford back into a side that has scored fewer goals this season than 18th-placed Leicester City ? It feels unlikely given that Amorim’s recent selections have made it abundantly clear he does not like what he sees, or hears, when it comes to one of the club’s highest-paid players. Rashford has been omitted from the past four squads and, when a player is frozen out that way, the lesson of history is that the story rarely gets a happy ending. Roberto Mancini did make up with Carlos Tevez (or, at least, was willing to tolerate him) after their relationship at Manchester City appeared to have disintegrated. Pep Guardiola did the same with Yaya Toure and, in both cases, it ended with the players coming in from the cold to help City win a league championship. Tevez could even make light of the fact he had spent four months in exile because of the dispute that started with Mancini accusing him of refusing to come on, as a substitute, during a Champions League tie against Bayern Munich . The Argentinian disappeared to Buenos Aires for much of that time and was photographed on a golf course, leading to questions about whether he cared more about his golf handicap than playing for his club. So when he scored a hat-trick in one of his comeback matches, a 6-1 win at Norwich City, he made a point of celebrating with a golf-swing. Perhaps it is an unfair comparison in some respects given that Tevez’s dispute with City involved lawyers, some ugly public outbursts and open hostility rather than the same kind of issues that have led to Rashford’s removal from Amorim’s team — his attitude and lifestyle, in short, and the growing suspicion that a player with 60 England caps has badly blurred his priorities. The point here, however, is that it can be difficult to recall many occasions when something similar has happened with one of the Premier League’s A-listers and that player’s relationship with his manager has survived. Advertisement In theory it should not be too hard, you might assume, for a manager and player to talk it out and agree that, whatever their differences, they can still be good for one another. In practice, however, it seldom happens that way. So how does Rashford feel about United’s manager leaving him out of the squad for their games against Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur , Bournemouth and Wolves ? Is he angry? Does he feel unfairly singled out? Or does he accept, deep down, that he has been pushing his luck for some time and, if he is really honest, that he has brought these problems upon himself? All that can really be said for certain is that Rashford seems keen to leave Old Trafford for another club and we know that because he, and his PR entourage, have made sure to get it out . Nor is it the first time he has given serious consideration to leaving in the past few years. United, in turn, would be open to selling him bearing in mind the growing evidence that Rashford, at 27, is no longer the player that everyone at Old Trafford expected, and wanted, him to be. But a transfer is never going to be straightforward because of the numbers involved and, unfortunately for Rashford, potential buyers could be excused for having a few misgivings when the player in question is earning in excess of £325,000 a week ($413,000) and has been out of form for longer than he would probably wish to remember. So the other option is that manager and player reach some sort of understanding and agree to put the past few weeks behind them. And that is clearly not straightforward either if you consider that, even when Jose Mourinho’s relationship with Paul Pogba was at its most strained, he never left him out of the entire squad for one match, never mind four in a row. Harry Maguire has shown it is possible to return to United’s starting XI after being frozen out, removed as captain and made available for transfer during Erik ten Hag’s time as manager. Advertisement That, however, was a different set of circumstances given that Maguire’s absence was based on football reasons rather than, as it is with Rashford, it being about what is happening off the pitch as well as on it. United fans may point out that Sir Alex Ferguson’s relationship with Wayne Rooney survived the player handing in a transfer request in 2010 and contemplating what would have been a treacherous cross-city switch to Manchester City. The better comparison, perhaps, is what happened in the last few weeks of Ferguson’s reign, late in the 2012-13 season, when Rooney was removed from the team because the manager did not like the way he was living his life. The two men could barely make eye contact as they lined up to shake hands after Ferguson’s farewell match at Old Trafford and the presentation of the Premier League trophy. The story at the time was that Ferguson had told his replacement, David Moyes, he had teed up Rooney’s departure as a leaving present. Chelsea wanted to sign the England striker. But Moyes had other ideas — as did Ed Woodward in his first summer as United’s chief executive — and sorted it out in a frank discussion with Rooney. “Do you still think you’re a top player?” Moyes asked. Rooney replied that, yes, of course he did. “So, if you are a top player, why are Chelsea offering only £25million for you?” Moyes wanted to know. Rooney knuckled down and was United’s best player for the first half of the following season. Perhaps Rashford could benefit from that kind of tete-a-tete and, if it has the same kind of impact, maybe it would help Amorim, too. Let’s not forget we are talking about a player who, with 138 goals, is 15th in United’s all-time list of scorers, ahead of Andy Cole, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Eric Cantona and various others who are considered to be United royalty. Go back through the years, however, and there is a clear pattern that the exile of a high-profile player is usually a manager signalling those at the top that it is time to cut them free. Advertisement Perhaps you recall Mikel Arteta doing something similar with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to set in motion his departure from Arsenal at a time when many fans considered him their best striker. Guardiola did the same with Joao Cancelo because of issues behind the scenes at City. Mancini gave up, in the end, on Mario Balotelli and, as happened with Rooney, sometimes it needs the manager to leave for a player to stay. Every Newcastle fan of a certain generation remembers Ruud Gullit’s infamous spell as manager and the mutiny that was caused by him dropping Alan Shearer, the local hero, for a derby defeat against Sunderland , early in the 1999-2000 season. The more relevant example, however, is Rob Lee, who was considered to be a Shearer ally, ostracised from Gullit’s team and made to train with the reserves. Lee, an England international, was not even given a squad number. But it was Gullit who lost the civil war and ended up resigning. Lee was brought back into the team by Bobby Robson and would later receive a testimonial season to mark his service to the club. And Rashford? The saddest thing, perhaps, is that there was a time when it was easy to imagine he, a former academy player who has been at the club since the age of seven, would be awarded a testimonial of his own one day. Maybe that can still be the case. It just doesn’t feel likely at the moment and, if he is left out again, we can probably conclude that Amorim is not willing to make exceptions just because of a player’s long association with the club. (Top photo: Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
NoneWASHINGTON — Donald Trump said he can't guarantee his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won't raise prices for American consumers and suggested once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect, in a wide-ranging interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" that aired Sunday, also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning "things do change." Here's a look at some of the issues covered: President-elect Donald Trump takes the stage before he speaks at the FOX Nation Patriot Awards, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024, in Greenvale, N.Y. (AP Photo/Heather Khalifa) Trump threatened broad trade penalties, but said he didn't believe economists' predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher domestic prices for consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that U.S. an households won't be paying more as they shop. "I can't guarantee anything. I can't guarantee tomorrow," Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market. That's a different approach from Trump's typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign, when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation. In the interview, Trump defended tariffs generally, saying that tariffs are "going to make us rich." He has pledged that, on his first day in office in January, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. He also has threatened tariffs on China to help force that country to crack down on fentanyl production. "All I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field," Trump said. He offered conflicting statements on how he would approach the justice system after winning election despite being convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and being indicted in other cases for his handling of national security secrets and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. "Honestly, they should go to jail," Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power. The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump's role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office. As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: "I have the absolute right. I'm the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I'm the president. But I'm not interested in that." At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. "Cheney was behind it ... so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee," Trump said. Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, "No," and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies. At another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. "I want her to do what she wants to do," he said. Such threats, regardless of Trump's inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration. Trump did seemingly back off his campaign rhetoric calling for Biden to be investigated, saying, "I'm not looking to go back into the past." Trump repeatedly mentioned his promises to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally through a mass deportation program. "I think you have to do it," he said. He suggested he would try to use executive action to end "birthright" citizenship under which people born in the U.S. are considered citizens — though such protections are spelled out in the Constitution. Asked specifically about the future for people who were brought into the country illegally as children and were shielded from deportation in recent years, Trump said, "I want to work something out," indicating he might seek a solution with Congress. But Trump also said he does not "want to be breaking up families" of mixed legal status, "so the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back." President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Notre Dame Cathedral as France's iconic cathedral is formally reopening its doors for the first time since a devastating fire nearly destroyed the 861-year-old landmark in 2019, Saturday Dec.7, 2024 in Paris ( Ludovic Marin, Pool via AP) Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their own defense, Trump said he "absolutely" would remain in the alliance "if they pay their bills." Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he were dissatisfied with allies' commitments, Trump said he wants the U.S. treated "fairly" on trade and defense. He waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Trump suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defense against Putin's invasion. "Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure," Trump said of reducing Ukraine assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump called for an immediate cease-fire. Asked about Putin, Trump said initially that he has not talked to the Russian leader since Election Day last month, but then hedged. "I haven't spoken to him recently," Trump said when pressed, adding that he did not want to "impede the negotiation." Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference at the Federal Reserve in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein) The president-elect said he has no intention, at least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before Powell's term ends in 2028. Trump said during the campaign that presidents should have more say in Fed policy, including interest rates. Trump did not offer any job assurances for FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term is to end in 2027. Asked about Wray, Trump said: "Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious" that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump's pick for FBI chief, then "he's going to be taking somebody's place, right? Somebody is the man that you're talking about." Trump promised that the government efficiency effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will not threaten Social Security. "We're not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient," he said. He added that "we're not raising ages or any of that stuff." He was not so specific about abortion or his long-promised overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. On abortion, Trump continued his inconsistencies and said he would "probably" not move to restrict access to the abortion pills that now account for a majority of pregnancy terminations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But pressed on whether he would commit to that position, Trump replied, "Well, I commit. I mean, are — things do — things change. I think they change." Reprising a line from his Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again said he had "concepts" of a plan to substitute for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called "lousy health care." He added a promise that any Trump version would maintain insurance protections for Americans with preexisting health conditions. He did not explain how such a design would be different from the status quo or how he could deliver on his desire for "better health care for less money." Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state, former Democratic House member Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence and Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz for attorney general. Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and then endorsed Trump . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about his record of spreading unfounded fears about vaccines . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, she ran for Congress in New Hampshire, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been tapped by Trump to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 halted the practice of secretly seizing reporters’ phone records during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. Lee Zeldin to serve as his pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on X , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Jared Isaacman, 41, is a tech billionaire who bought a series of spaceflights from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and conducted the first private spacewalk . He is the founder and CEO of a card-processing company and has collaborated closely with Musk ever since buying his first chartered SpaceX flight. He took contest winners on that 2021 trip and followed it in September with a mission where he briefly popped out the hatch to test SpaceX’s new spacewalking suits. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a representative from New York and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. President-elect Donald Trump says he's chosen former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker to serve as U.S. ambassador to NATO. Trump has expressed skepticism about the Western military alliance for years. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that Whitaker is “a strong warrior and loyal Patriot” who “will ensure the United States’ interests are advanced and defended” and “strengthen relationships with our NATO Allies, and stand firm in the face of threats to Peace and Stability.” The choice of Whitaker as the nation’s representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is an unusual one, given his background is as a lawyer and not in foreign policy. President-elect Donald Trump tapped former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to be ambassador to China, saying in a social media post that the former CEO “brings valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.” Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran unsuccessfully in a primary against Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for governor. Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, has been tasked with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Customs and Border Protection, with its roughly 60,000 employees, falls under the Department of Homeland Security. It includes the Border Patrol, which Rodney Scott led during Trump's first term, and is essentially responsible for protecting the country's borders while facilitating trade and travel. Scott comes to the job firmly from the Border Patrol side of the house. He became an agent in 1992 and spent much of his career in San Diego. When he was appointed head of the border agency in January 2020, he enthusiastically embraced Trump's policies. After being forced out under the Biden administration, Scott has been a vocal supporter of Trump's hard-line immigration agenda. He appeared frequently on Fox News and testified in Congress. He's also a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Dan Scavino, deputy chief of staff Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. James Blair, deputy chief of staff Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Taylor Budowich, deputy chief of staff Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Jay Bhattacharya, National Institutes of Health Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Marty Makary, Food and Drug Administration Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Dr. Janette Nesheiwat, Surgeon General Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Dr. Dave Weldon, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Jamieson Greer, U.S. trade representative Kevin Hassett, Director of the White House National Economic Council Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.The county was left with no Conservative MPs for the first time in recent history, after losing their seats in Banbury, Witney, Didcot and Wantage, as well as Henley and Thame. While the Labour party won by a landslide nationally, the Lib Dems were the major winners in Oxfordshire. READ MORE: Marcham crash driver jailed after killing three teens Henley and Thame had been represented by a Conservative MP for 114 years until it turned Lib Dem in the general election. Freddie van Mierlo, the new Lib Dem MP, said: “It has been an historic year for Henley and Thame and after more than 100 years of Conservative representation, the constituency has elected a Lib Dem MP. (Image: Newsquest) “For the first time since 1777, Oxfordshire no longer has a Conservative MP. “It is an honour to represent such an incredible part of the country, and I am committed to rebuilding trust in politics that has been severely damaged over the past 14 years. “Transparency, accountability, and responsiveness are my priorities. “I want to be the constituency dedicated MP Henley and Thame has lacked. “I hold regular public surgeries by appointment, and I am working hard to help residents on individual cases.” Long-standing Conservative MP Victoria Prentis, who had represented Banbury since 2015, lost her seat to the Labour candidate Sean Woodcock. (Image: Sean Woodcock) Reflecting on his win, Mr Woodcock MP said: “4 July shows how badly the Conservative Party lost the trust of people even in their previous heartlands. “They crashed the economy leaving us with low growth, rising national debt, and a £22bn black hole in the public finances. “By the time they left office, the NHS waiting list was at 7.6 million. And they lost control of our borders with immigration at nearly one million last year. Alongside the worst housing crisis in generations. Since July, they’ve shown no signs of learning from the result; doubling down on stuff that is irrelevant to the majority of the population.” Lib Dem MP Calum Miller became the first ever MP for the newly created constituency, Bicester and Woodstock. (Image: Charlotte Coles, Newsquest) He said: “Since July, it has been an immense honour to serve as your MP. “I’ve enjoyed the privilege of attending dozens of events and meeting hundreds of residents. I have spoken with many of you about the challenges you face. “My team and I have tried to help directly. “I’ve also raised with Ministers your many concerns including flooding, provision for children with SEND, access to health and social care and funding rural transport. “Next year, I’m committed to ensuring the needs of our area are heard in government.” Anneliese Dodds retained her seat in Oxford East and was appointed to Minister of State in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as well as Minister for Women and Equalities in the Department of Education. (Image: Contribution.) She said: "People in Oxford East were desperate for change – so that's what Labour has been delivering. “Living costs are sky high here, so we’ve boosted the Minimum and National Living Wage. “The new government is also funding 40,000 more NHS appointments a week, supporting public investment (including for East-West rail), put in new Respect Orders and measures against domestic violence and knife crime; launched Great British Energy to deliver green power and is setting up pilot free breakfast club schools. “And there’s much more to come with our Plan for Change set out earlier this month". Charlie Maynard, newly elected MP for Witney, David Cameron’s former constituency, said: “I’m loving being your MP, thank you so much for voting for me. “By far the hardest task has been building a team from zero after the election. That is now done. (Image: Miranda Norris) “I have a fantastic, experienced team who are an enormous help both to constituents and to me. “Over the last few months I’ve also been helped by a lots of volunteers who stepped in at very short notice to help set things up and I will be forever be grateful to them. “I am hard at work on the issues that you elected me on. I’ve just been asked to join the committee on the Water Bill which is making its way through parliament. “I am working with district and county colleagues both to bring more health services into Witney from Oxford and to rebuild the railway line between Oxford, Eynsham, Witney and Carterton to help mitigate our dire transport and housing problems. “I’ve been elected on the business and trade select committee and am pushing for policies which will get our economy growing again, funding our public services and bringing down the exorbitant cost of living.” Lib Dem MP Layla Moran retained her seat in Oxford West and Abingdon, while Lib Dem Olly Glover gained the Didcot and Wantage seat from the Conservatives.
BEIRUT — Hezbollah fired about 250 rockets and other projectiles into Israel on Sunday, wounding seven people in one of the militant group's heaviest barrages in months, in response to deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut while negotiators pressed on with cease-fire efforts to halt the all-out war. An Israeli bomb squad policeman carries the remains of a rocket that was fired from Lebanon on Sunday in Kibbutz Kfar Blum, northern Israel. Some of the rockets reached the Tel Aviv area in the heart of Israel. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike on an army center killed a Lebanese soldier and wounded 18 others in the southwest between Tyre and Naqoura, Lebanon's military said. The Israeli military expressed regret, saying that the strike occurred in an area of combat against Hezbollah and that the military's operations are directed solely against the militants. Israeli strikes have killed over 40 Lebanese troops since the start of the war between Israel and Hezbollah, even as Lebanon's military has largely kept to the sidelines. Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned the latest strike as an assault on U.S.-led cease-fire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war. Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups. The Israeli police bomb squad inspects the site after a missile fired from Lebanon hit the area Sunday in Petah Tikva, outskirts of Tel Aviv, Israel. Israel launched retaliatory airstrikes at Hezbollah, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war as Israel launched airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The Israeli military said about 250 projectiles were fired Sunday, with some intercepted. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said it treated seven people, including a 60-year old man in severe condition from rocket fire on northern Israel, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast in the central city of Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, and a 70-year-old woman who suffered smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire there. In Haifa, a rocket hit a residential building that police said was in danger of collapsing. The Palestine Red Crescent reported 13 injuries it said were caused by an interceptor missile that struck several homes in Tulkarem in the West Bank. It was unclear whether injuries and damage were caused by rockets or interceptors. Sirens wailed again in central and northern Israel hours later. Israeli airstrikes without warning on Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 29 people and wounding 67, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. A flock of birds flies above the smoke from Israeli airstrikes Sunday in Dahiyeh, Beirut. Smoke billowed above Beirut again Sunday with new strikes. Israel's military said it targeted command centers for Hezbollah and its intelligence unit in the southern suburbs of Dahiyeh, where the militants have a strong presence. Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,700 people in Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population. On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardment in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Israel-Hezbollah war while on a visit to the Lebanese c... The European Union’s top diplomat called Sunday for more pressure on Israel and Hezbollah to reach a deal, saying one was "pending with a final agreement from the Israeli government.” U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region last week. Josep Borrell spoke after meeting with Mikati and Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Hezbollah ally who has been mediating with the group. Borrell said the EU is ready to allocate $208 million to assist the Lebanese military. But Borrell later said that he did not “see the Israeli government interested clearly in reaching an agreement for a cease-fire" and that it seemed Israel was seeking new conditions. He pointed to Israel’s refusal to accept France as a member of the international committee that would oversee the cease-fire's implementation. The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the U.N. Security Council resolution that ended the monthlong 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol with the presence of U.N. peacekeepers. With talks for a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza stalled, freed hostages and families of those held marked a year since the war's only hostage-release deal. “It’s hard to hold on to hope, certainly after so long and as another winter is about to begin," said Yifat Zailer, cousin of Shiri Bibas, who is held along with her husband and two young sons. Around 100 hostages are still in Gaza, at least a third believed to be dead. Most of the rest of the 250 who were abducted in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack were released in last year's cease-fire. Talks for another deal recently had several setbacks, including the firing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who pushed for a deal, and Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation. Hamas wants Israel to end the war and withdraw all troops from Gaza. Israel has offered only to pause its offensive. The Palestinian death toll from the war surpassed 44,000 this week, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. On Sunday, six people were killed in strikes in central Gaza, according to AP journalists at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. How often do you buy something online ? A couple of times a month? A couple of times a week? A couple of times a day? Everybody's answer will be different, but collectively, it's done a lot: Online retail accounted for over $1 trillion of purchases in the U.S. in 2022 and a record $277.6 billion in the second quarter of 2023 alone. Retailers ranging from titans like Amazon and Walmart, down to local small-town shops work very hard to land their share of that business. Sadly and inevitably—so do criminals and scammers. At any given moment, they operate millions of bogus sites. So how can you spot those fake online shopping sites? Spokeo provides a guide. In the early days of the internet , it took some genuine skills to set up a website, but those days are gone. A quick search will show that there are lots of apps and services offering websites on a prefabricated "fill in the blanks" basis, and most web hosts provide those tools as part of the service when someone signs up with them. It's even easier on social media . If you were opening a "side hustle" business tomorrow from your home, you could set up your own Facebook page tonight in under an hour, with exactly zero knowledge of websites. Once that page is set up, you just need to throw a few dollars in the direction of Facebook's advertising department, and they'll start advertising your page to users. It's no harder to promote a website, except in that case, you'd give your advertising dollars to Google. This is a simplified overview, but the main point holds: Establishing a presence online has become a very democratized process, open to anyone with minimal skills and even the smallest budget for advertising. That's been a boon for legitimate entrepreneurs, but it also makes life very easy indeed for scammers. There are multiple types of bogus websites . Some are imposters, created to look very much like a legitimate commercial or government site that you're familiar with, such as Amazon or Netflix. Others don't imitate a specific site, but instead attempt to capture the look and feel of those sites in general (whether that be a retail site, a government or bank page, or even something relatively shady like a gambling or porn site). Next, scammers find ways to drive traffic to their site. Often that's through phishing texts or emails, but deceptive ads on social media or search engines like Google and Bing work just as well. Once a browser arrives at the criminals' site (or, in some cases, downloads their app), any number of bad things can happen. One is that they'll download malware onto your devices, which can capture passwords or steal personal information. A more straightforward risk is that the browser will cheerfully enter their personal and banking/credit card information, thinking they're making a legitimate purchase. That's largely why fake online shopping sites are so dangerous, and so useful to scammers and identity thieves. Most bogus sites share some or all of those characteristics, but shopping sites are a very specific type of bogus site with some quirks of their own. One characteristic to count on—whether the website directly impersonates a major retailer like Amazon, a niche retailer like MEC, or just positions itself as an anonymously general retail site—is that it will offer unusually low pricing on high-demand products. That might be a mass-market item like the latest gaming console, a suddenly in-demand item that's unavailable through normal channels (remember trying to get masks and sanitizing wipes during COVID-19?), or something as mundane as disposable diapers or high-capacity computer drives. Whatever the product, the advertised price will be low enough to get attention. The bogus site will have any number of ways to transfer a browser's money to its coffers, depending on the scammers' intentions and skillset. A few of the most common include: These are all aside from the potential to infect devices or steal payment information . Sites focused on identity theft might consider a faux purchase to be just the added gravy. How common is online shopping fraud? Well, the news is pretty bad. The FTC's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book recorded over 327,000 online shopping complaints, the fourth-highest category for overall complaints and second among fraud categories. You would expect these sites to be more prevalent during the final quarter of the year, corresponding to the holiday gift-giving season—Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas itself—and they are, but that doesn't mean you can relax during the other nine months of the year. The Anti-Phishing Working Group, or APWG, identified nearly a million fake or phishing websites during the first quarter of 2022 alone (not a busy time of year for shopping), for example. To be clear, only 14.6% of those were eCommerce sites, but that still translates to well over 140,000 bogus shopping sites. The true number is almost certainly higher because the APWG only tracks the ones that use a phishing approach. Many opt to simply buy advertising instead (or as well), and those won't be captured in the APWG's statistics. However you slice it, there's a definite risk of encountering these sites when you shop. The good news is that bogus shopping sites aren't hard to spot, once you're aware of the risk. They aren't built for permanence; scammers pull them together quickly and cheaply and then abandon them once they stop producing.That "just good enough" approach leaves plenty of visible signs you can detect. Below, here's what to look for when recognizing fake online shopping sites. Bad images Bogus sites don't have direct access to the real products' manufacturing images, so they resort to copying and pasting from legitimate sites. \That means bogus sites' product images (and often their fake logos, if they impersonate a legitimate site) are fuzzy and low-res. A URL that's slightly "off" Imposter sites obviously can't have the same URL as the legitimate site, so they'll usually have a URL that looks right, but isn't quite. They might have a typo in the name, or incorporate the real company's name into their URL in a non-standard way ("myfakesite.amazon.com.123xyz.com"), or—sneakiest of all—use a letter from a different language's character set , which looks the same to the eye, but not to the computer. Broken links The scammers may have simply copied and pasted user interface elements from a legitimate site, in which case many links on the site may be broken (or simply not clickable). Lots of missing elements A legitimate retail website will have several pages of legalese, often starting with a pop-up about its cookie policy or privacy policy. You should certainly expect to see a detailed document spelling out shipping policies, return and refund policies, and similar details. If those are missing or brief and vapid, it's probably a fake site. Limited options for payment Sites that plan to take your money and run will often show oddly specific payment options, from wire transfers to gift cards to cryptocurrency. The thing those payment methods have in common is that it's very difficult to get money back once it's spent. Sites geared around capturing your personal or payment information, on the other hand, may insist on getting your credit card. Typos, grammar, and linguistic errors Simple, silly language errors are often a red flag. Scammers may not be native English speakers, and it shows up in awkward or sometimes inappropriate phrasing. Errors in actual product listings aren't necessarily a smoking gun—you'll see them frequently on real Amazon pages—because they come from the manufacturers, who are often not English speakers. Language errors on the rest of the site are more of a concern. HTTP vs. HTTPS In the address bar of your browser, a legitimate retail site's URL will start with HTTPS, rather than HTTP, and will show a closed lock symbol. The majority of fake sites now also have an HTTPS URL and will show the lock (so this isn't as helpful as it used to be), but less-sophisticated scammers may miss that detail. You can automatically rule those ones out. And, of course, the biggest red flag of all is an unrealistically low price on the product you're looking for. We all want to get a really good deal, but that impulse will often lead you astray. If a shopping site fails those basic "eyeball" tests, the smart thing to do is just close that browser tab and walk away. If you want to dig deeper, or if you aren't sure, there are a few quick and easy ways to verify a site's legitimacy. Use a URL/website checker Remember those really sneaky fake URLs that use a letter from another alphabet? The best way to check those (and other problematic elements in a URL) is through a URL verifier/website reputation service, like the ones from URLVoid and Google . Just copy (don't click!) the link, and paste it into the checker. If the site is sketchy, they'll tell you. Look up the site on a registry Domain names all need to be registered and there are several lookup tools to check this, like ICANN's registration lookup (think of it as Spokeo for websites). If a site claims to be Amazon but was registered just a few weeks ago, that's a really big red flag. Similarly, if the site isn't located where it should be, or if the ownership data is obscured, that's grounds for concern. Turn to Google If you have a bad feeling about a particular site, do a quick Google or Bing (or whatever) search that pairs the site's name with keywords like "scam," "fraud," "bogus" or "ripoff" and see what comes up. If you get a lot of hits, that's definitely grounds for concern. Go Forth and Shop (Safely) If a given site fails any or all of those tests, then keeping your wallet in your pocket is definitely the smart choice. Instead of making the purchase, report the site instead to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center and the FTC's Report Fraud website. That will get the investigative wheels turning and may help protect someone less wary from falling victim to the scammers. As always, wariness and skepticism are your friends when it comes to avoiding scams. Don't click on links in emails, texts , or social media messages; instead, go to the company's site by typing the URL directly. If you search a company's page on Google, scroll down through the actual search results until you find it instead of clicking on the sponsored results or advertisements at the top. Most of all, remember the golden rule of scam avoidance: If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Keeping those principles in mind, and using the tips given here to screen out dubious sites means you'll be able to shop 'til you drop (safely), despite the vast number of scammers out there. And that—as the credit card ads like to say—is priceless. This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get local news delivered to your inbox!
A butterfly collector in Africa with more than 4.2 million seeks to share them for the future NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — What began as a childhood hobby more than six decades ago has led to what might be Africa’s largest butterfly collection in a suburb of Kenya’s capital. Steve Collins has a collection of 4.2 million butterflies representing hundreds of species. Now, running out of space and time, he hopes to hand it over to the next generation. One expert familiar with Collins and his work suggests that the collection should be digitized for global access. Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen returns to a tournament after a dispute over jeans is resolved NEW YORK (AP) — Top ranked chess player Magnus Carlsen is headed back to the World Blitz Championship on Monday. That's after its governing body agreed to loosen a dress code that got him fined and denied a late-round game in another tournament for refusing to change out of jeans. The International Chess Federation president said in a statement Sunday that he’d let World Blitz Championship tournament officials consider allowing “appropriate jeans” with a jacket, as well as other "minor deviations” from the dress code. Carlsen quit the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships on Friday. He said Sunday he would play — and wear jeans — in the World Blitz Championship. 'Sonic 3' and 'Mufasa' battle for No. 1 at the holiday box office Two family films are dominating the holiday box office, with “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” winning the three-day weekend over “Mufasa” by a blue hair. According to studio estimates Sunday, the Sonic movie earned $38 million, while “Mufasa” brought in $37.1 million from theaters in the U.S. and Canada. The R-rated horror “Nosferatu” placed third with an unexpectedly strong $21.2 million. Thanksgiving release holdovers “Wicked” and “Moana 2” rounded out the top five. Christmas Day had several big film openings, including the Bob Dylan biopic “A Complete Unknown,” the Nicole Kidman erotic drama “Babygirl” and the boxing drama “The Fire Inside.” Charles Shyer, ‘Father of the Bride’ and ‘Baby Boom’ filmmaker, dies at 83 An Oscar-nominated writer and filmmaker known for classic comedies like “Private Benjamin,” “Baby Boom” and “Father of the Bride," Charles Shyer has died. He was 83. On Sunday his daughter Hallie Meyers-Shyer told The Associated Press that he died Friday in Los Angeles. No cause was disclosed. Born in Los Angeles in 1941 to a filmmaker father, Shyer's big breakthrough came with co-writing “Private Benjamin” for which he and Nancy Meyers received an Oscar nomination. He and Nancy Meyers were frequent collaborators through their nearly 20-year marriage, including on the remake of “The Parent Trap," starring Lindsay Lohan. LeBron James at 40: A milestone birthday arrives Monday for the NBA's all-time scoring leader When LeBron James broke another NBA record earlier this month, the one for most regular-season minutes played in a career, his Los Angeles Lakers teammates handled the moment in typical locker room fashion. They made fun of him. Dubbed The Kid from Akron, with a limitless future, James is now the 40-year-old from Los Angeles with wisps of gray in his beard, his milestone birthday coming Monday, one that will make him the first player in NBA history to play in his teens, 20s, 30s and 40s. He has stood and excelled in the spotlight his entire career. Belgium will ban sales of disposable e-cigarettes in a first for the EU BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium will ban the sale of disposable electronic cigarettes as of Jan. 1 on health and environmental grounds in a groundbreaking move for European Union nations. Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke tells The Associated Press that the inexpensive e-cigarettes have turned into a health threat since they are an easy way for teenagers to be drawn into smoking and get hooked on nicotine. Australia outlawed the sale of “vapes” outside pharmacies earlier this year in some of the world’s toughest restrictions on electronic cigarettes. Now Belgium is leading the EU drive. Belgium's minister wants tougher tobacco measures in the 27-nation bloc. Charles Dolan, HBO and Cablevision founder, dies at 98 Charles F. Dolan, who founded some of the most prominent U.S. media companies including Home Box Office Inc. and Cablevision Systems Corp., has died at age 98. Newsday reports that a statement issued Saturday by his family says Dolan died of natural causes. Dolan’s legacy in cable broadcasting includes founding HBO in 1972, Cablevision in 1973 and the American Movie Classics television station in 1984. He also launched News 12 in New York City, the first U.S. 24-hour cable channel for local news. Dolan also held controlling stakes in companies that owned Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the New York Knicks and New York Rangers sports franchises. Snoop's game: Snoop Dogg thrills the crowd in the bowl that bears his name TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Miami of Ohio beat Colorado State in the Arizona Bowl, but Snoop Dogg was the main attraction. The Snoop Dogg Arizona Bowl presented by Gin & Juice by Dre and Snoop was much a spectacle as a football game. Snoop Dogg seemed to be everywhere all at once, from a pregame tailgate to the postgame trophy presentation. Snoop Dog donned a headset on Colorado State's sideline, spent some time in the broadcast and even led both marching bands as conductor during their halftime performance. Snoop Dogg saved the best for last, rolling out in a light green, lowrider Chevy Impala with gold rims and accents, the shiny Arizona Bowl trophy in his hand as fans screamed his name. Mavs star Luka Doncic is latest pro athlete whose home was burglarized, business manager says DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is the latest professional athlete whose home has been burglarized. The star guard’s business manager tells multiple media outlets there was a break-in at Doncic’s home Friday night. Lara Beth Seager says nobody was home, and Doncic filed a police report. The Dallas Morning News reports that jewelry valued at about $30,000 was stolen. Doncic is the sixth known pro athlete in the U.S. whose home was burglarized since October. Star NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Joe Burrow of Cincinnati are among them. The NFL and NBA have issued security alerts to players over the break-ins. Victor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New York Victor Wembanyama went to a park in New York City and played 1-on-1 with fans on Saturday. He even lost a couple of games. Not in basketball, though. Wemby was playing chess. Before the San Antonio Spurs left New York for a flight to Minnesota, Wembanyama put out the call on social media: “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,” Wembanyama wrote. It was 9:36 a.m. And people began showing up almost immediately.LSU outlasts UCF 109-102 in triple-OT affair
Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Key Posts Israeli airstrikes kill 20 in central Beirut Climate talks pass deadline with no deal agreed Associated Press Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Most Viewed In PoliticsNitish Kumar Reddy came up with a sensational performance after the India national cricket team was looking in deep trouble during the IND vs AUS 4th Test 2024. Nitish played a blissful knock and scored his first international ton in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). Reacting to this, Indian all-rounder's sister Tejaswi Reddy shared her reaction after Nitish Kumar Reddy completed his maiden international century. Tejaswi Reddy said, "My brother had kept that promise and proved it himself. And I'm happy for it." Tejaswi also mentioned that she and all others in the family are really proud of Nitish. Nitish Kumar Reddy's Name Etched on Melbourne Cricket Ground Honours Board After All-Rounder Hits Maiden International Century During IND vs AUS Boxing Day Test 2024 (See Pic). "My brother had kept that promise and proved it himself. And I'm happy for it." 🥰 🏏A wholesome chat with Tejaswi Reddy, sister of Nitish Kumar Reddy, after an emotional maiden Test century for the family. 📻 Hear the full chat: https://t.co/HiWuh67Z9B #AUSvIND 📻 pic.twitter.com/KYCgL04LZN — ABC SPORT (@abcsport) December 29, 2024 (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter (X), Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)
AP Trending SummaryBrief at 11:43 p.m. ESTCATHOLIC EDUCATION The Holy Angel Academy, founded by Juan and Teresa Nepomuceno in 1933 for their son, Javier Jesus, evolved into the Holy Angel University, the country’s first Catholic university founded by laypersons. —Tonette T. Orejas ANGELES CITY, PAMPANGA, Philippines — Two universities in this city in Pampanga—one with a 91-year legacy, the other spanning 62 years—have flourished over time. The third-generation heirs leading the Holy Angel University (HAU) and Angeles University Foundation (AUF) believed they became good, if not the best, in what they do in their field because their institutions adhere to the values passed down by their founders, using these as guideposts in meeting today’s challenges. “All for the glory of God,” the motto of HAU founder Don Juan Nepomuceno, is not only etched on his gravestone. It is in the HAU mission statement, his grandson Leopoldo Jaime Valdes, the current university president, said. The maxim that his grandmother Doña Teresa Nepomuceno lived by—“Do it well or not at all”—has become the quality statement that is seen on campus. “Our grandparents were, in a way, servant-leaders. They didn’t bring attention to themselves; they just served. They’re philanthropists,” Valdes said, referring to the couple’s commercial and social enterprises that helped grow Angeles City, then Barrio Kuliat, that Juan’s great grandfather, Don Angel Pantaleon de Miranda, founded. The couple started the Angeles Electric Light and Power Plant in 1923 because the Holy Rosary Church needed electricity. They opened the Holy Angel Academy for their firstborn, Javier Jesus (Jave) and other youth who wanted to finish high school without studying in the capital Manila. Teresa handled the operations and Juan, the accounting and bookkeeping side. The children learned honest labor and discipline by working in the businesses and made sacrifices because their two houses accommodated the relatives. Valdes, a son of Aurora, the seventh among the 10 Nepomuceno children, had what he called the “extraordinary privilege” of growing and learning from his grandparents. At one time when businesses slumped, the elders ditched tinsels and glued instead “papel de Hapon” for a Christmas tree on the wall. From this, Valdes learned that the so-called old money from the wedding gifts of lands and gold coins was fleeting. “Industriousness, working hard, doing things for others— these are more important than the wealth you currently have. We never thought that we were rich. We kept thinking we had a lot of work to do,” he added. So beginning with 78 students in 1933, the enrollees grew to 14,026 this 2024, with 5,779 of them as scholars. HAU evolved as the first Catholic school in the Philippines that was founded and managed by laypersons. It is the first co-ed Catholic high school that produced government officials, business leaders, trailblazers in the private sector, artists, religious persons and rebels. It received the Philippine Quality Award among higher education institutions accredited by the Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges and Universities (Paascu). On account of his bloodline, background and work in HAU since 2016 in learning systems, Valdes was chosen by the board to head HAU in 2021 after the death of Dr. Luis Maria Calingo from complications of COVID-19 that year. Choosing Valdes was in line with the results of a 2015 survey that showed a strong clamor to have a family member lead the school. “Every president of the university has contributed to where it is right now. There are no right or wrong presidents,” Valdes said. Following its founders’ lead, HAU is not driven by profit. “It’s motivated by family and God and their values. In crises like World War II and Mt. Pinatubo’s eruptions, the [family] kept steadfast. The family comes in to rebuild. We always look around in our community and to society in general to see what we can do to support. And all the other family businesses are meant to do that,” he said. “We live these every day,” Valdes further said, adding, “We return to the vision-mission cycle and try to connect everything back to the founders as much as possible while looking forward.” He noted that there was clarification of roles at times. “Are we here to direct or are we here to serve? It is the service that is most important.” “The organization is like an upside-down pyramid, where the head, I myself, is at the bottom, and I serve all people above me, and they serve all the people above them. The goal is to be a servant first, a leader second. The goal is to serve the priority needs of the people who work with us. In this, the students and their parents are at the very top,” Valdes said. At least 680 of the close to 1,000 employees of HAU are teachers who are helped to imbibe the values and believe in the vision-mission. Valdes tells the story and values of Juan and Teresa to new employees. A cartoon character was made of Juan to inspire enthusiasm among the youth. “Laus deo semper” (Praise God always) is the battlecry cascaded by being a good model,” he said. PRAISE, PERSISTENCE Leopoldo Jaime Valdes is the third generation Nepomuceno heir leading the Holy Angel University’s educational battlecry “Laus Deo Semper” (Praise God always). Another Pampanga university, the Angeles University Foundation (right), is a story of persistence by the founder, Barbara Yap-Angeles; her son, Emmanuel, who turned it into a foundation; and her grandson, Joseph Emmanuel (below), who is leading it to prepare students for the modern challenges of education. —Tonette T. Orejas Some courses are offered for their importance rather than for money, like cybersecurity or a Green MBA for sustainability. It sustains the Center for Kapampangan Studies to help preserve the language and culture. It looks at the success of students and graduates. “Where are our graduates today? What did we do to get them there?” Valdes said. Based on the 2022-2023 tracer study, HAU graduates posted an 87-percent employability rate. The School of Arts and Sciences registered a rate of 88 percent; the School of Business and Accountancy, 88 percent; the School of Engineering and Architecture, 63 percent; the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, 93 percent; the School of Computing, 100 percent; the College of Criminal Justice Education and Forensic, 87 percent; the School of Nursing and Allied Medical Sciences, 64 percent; and the School of Education, 94 percent. It offers less than 90 programs. “We knew we were different because of the way we were founded and how we were resilient over the years,” Valdes said. He added: “The important measure of a university that’s supposed to be cared [for] is that we did not leave anyone behind. And because we have to think in that respect, we have to think about those who failed. We are looking at failure as not a negative but something that actually leads to strength. Barbara Yap-Angeles closed the Angeles Academy three years after she opened it in 1933. Many endeavors, including motherhood, got her away from her dream of reviving the school. She picked up the dream again in 1962 by establishing the Angeles Institute of Technology (AIT) on proceeds of sold or pawned jewelry. Her eldest son, former Commission on Higher Education head Dr. Emmanuel Yap Angeles, recovered some of his mother’s jewelry and paid all her loans in 1975, or 13 years later. He also gave up his law practice to help her grow AIT. “Nobody should be deprived of education because of poverty,” was what she often told him. The Department of Education granted AIT university status in 1971. Emmanuel converted the school into a foundation and a Catholic university in 1975. He inaugurated the AUF Medical Center in 1990 and established centers of excellence at AUF, mostly on grants and tie-ups with more than 200 universities and benefactors from all over the world. Lawyer Joseph Emmanuel Angeles, the second of three children of Emmanuel and Dr. Cornelia Pabico Lukban, assumed the position of university president in 2009. “AUF was already well-known, especially for our nursing and medicine courses, when I assumed at the prodding of Tatang [Emmanuel], then AUF president Dr. Ricardo Pama and the AUF Trustees. I knew I had large shoes to fill. Tatang was the driving force behind the reestablishment of AUF, and the architect of AUF’s achieving university status within nine years, its conversion to a nonprofit foundation and recognition as a Catholic university,” Angeles said. “Cognizant of this legacy, I built upon this foundation to ensure the AUF founders’ enduring contribution to Philippine education,” he added. His focus, he said, is to attain the highest quality Catholic education and make it accessible to Filipinos. “In doing so, we bring to life AUF’s mission of ‘Total Development of Man for God and Humanity,” Angeles shared. According to him, the fulfillment of that mission can be seen from the overall board examination passing rate of 70.87 percent in 2009 and 86.98 percent in 2023; and Paascu accreditation of 19 programs in 2009 and 70 in 2023. Joseph Emmanuel Angeles, AUF president Its Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) Centers of Excellence (COEs)/Development (CODs) totaled one COE in Information Technology in 2009 and five centers in 2023 (COE in Information Technology, COE in Teacher Education, COE in Criminology, COD in Computer Engineering and COD in Nursing). AUF has also been recently included in the 2025 QS Asian Ranking (QSAR 2025). In Asia, it was ranked 901+; and in Southeast Asia, 169. AUF is the only private university in Central Luzon that was ranked in QSAR 2025. In The Impact Rankings, he said AUF was ranked as one of the top universities in the country along with the University of Santo Tomas, University of the Philippines and Ateneo de Manila University. In the Student Mobility and Openness Category of The World University Rankings for Innovation, AUF was ranked 57th in the world and 3ed in the Philippines. Angeles said it was important to share the narrative. “Lola Barang passed away before I was born, but her values were passed on through Tatang’s anecdotes over the dinner table. Tatang would similarly pass on his values and experiences through his own anecdotes and example.” He said he learned from her charity and concern for the disadvantaged. “Tatang attested to Lola Barang’s remarkable generosity, exemplified by her pawning jewelry to help others. From Tatang, that virtue of charity was reinforced, and to that he added the virtues of grit, hard work, discipline, and the ability to walk with kings, but not lose the common touch,” Angeles said. That generosity, he added, has continued through AUF’s scholarship programs that have benefited more than 78,000 students at a cost of over P1.36 billion from 1975 to 2023. His leadership introduced pillars of quality and accessibility. “Without quality and accessibility, AUF has no reason for being. Only with these foundations can AUF properly assume the mantle of a world-class Catholic university,” Angeles said. With these, new programs and institutes came. Among them are the AUF School of Law, headed by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Vitug, which has been recognized by the Legal Education Board and Supreme Court for its bar examination performance. The Confucius Institute at AUF was awarded multiple times as Confucius Institute of the Year in 2011, 2013 and 2017. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . The AUF Senior High School has been recognized by the Department of Science and Technology for their innovative research. The recently launched BS Human Biology program would allow exceptional students to complete their medicine studies at AUF within six years.
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