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Military Armored Vehicles And Counter Ied Vehicle Market Driven by Demand for Immersive Technologies Across IndustriesBy David Morgan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top national security advisers to President-elect Donald Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden are working "hand in glove" to pose a united front against U.S. adversaries during the presidential transition, Trump adviser Mike Waltz said on Sunday. Waltz, a Republican congressman tapped by Trump to serve as his national security adviser after taking office Jan. 20, said he is in discussions with his Biden administration counterpart, Jake Sullivan, as the United States confronts an escalating war in Ukraine and ongoing hostilities in the Middle East. "For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other, they're wrong," Waltz, a Trump loyalist and former Army Green Beret, told "Fox News Sunday." "We are hand in glove," Waltz added. "We are one team with the United States in this transition." Trump could face a rocky Senate confirmation process for other top national security picks viewed as inexperienced or otherwise flawed, including Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman who has been chosen as intelligence chief, and Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News host nominated to head the Defense Department. Gabbard has implied that Russian President Vladimir Putin had valid grounds for invading Ukraine and stirred controversy by meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the midst of his bloody crackdown on dissidents in 2017. Hegseth, a military veteran, has been accused of sexual assault, though no criminal charges were filed, and Hegseth has said the encounter was consensual. Trump's initial choice for U.S. attorney general, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration last week in the face of Senate opposition over allegations of illicit drug use and sex trafficking. Despite lawmaker concerns about Trump nominees, Senator John Barrasso told "Fox News Sunday" in a separate interview that Republicans are aiming to confirm most of Trump's cabinet picks quickly so that they would be in place soon after he takes office on Jan. 20. "It's critical for us in the Senate to make sure that on day one, President Trump has confirmed his national security team," said Barrasso, who will serve as No. 2 Republican when his party takes control of the chamber in January. Waltz said the incoming Trump administration is prepared to work with European NATO allies and others to end what he called an escalating conflict in Ukraine, where Russian forces have begun using a new intermediate-range ballistic missile. "It is just an absolute meat grinder of people and personnel on that front. It is more like World War One trench warfare," Waltz said, emphasizing the need to begin negotiations. "What we need to be discussing is who's at that table, whether it's an agreement, an armistice, how to get both sides to the table, and then what's the framework of a deal," Waltz said. "That's what we'll be working with this administration until January and then beyond." (Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Scott Malone)
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CINCINNATI (AP) — The Cincinnati Bengals finally managed to win a close game. Seven of Cincinnati's eight losses this season have been by one score. The frustration of not being able to close out these games had started to fester among the confounded Bengals. That's why Monday night's 27-20 win over the Dallas Cowboys was so satisfying. Joe Burrow threw a tiebreaking 40-yard touchdown pass to Ja'Marr Chase with 1:01 left. That was set up by a botched punt block that put the ball back in Cincinnati's hands with less than two minutes remaining. “I guess I could say luck went our way on this one,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. Most every other good thing that happened for Cincinnati (5-8) in snapping a three-game skid was earned. Burrow finished 33 for 44 for 369 yards with three touchdowns and an interception. Chase caught 14 passes for 177 yards and two touchdowns. “We needed this feeling because those last three locker rooms haven’t been like this,” Taylor said. “So just to feel that joy and the week’s worth of work has paid off for you, and then you turn the page and move on to the next one. But it helps you during the week just to have this confidence. We got one, and now we’ve got to go do it again.” The Bengals outgained the Cowboys 433-322. “It’s an opportunity for the world to see and we’re going to keep fighting,” Taylor said of getting the win on Monday Night Football. “So when the Bengals walk on the field, you’re going to get our best shot.” What's working The Burrow-to-Chase connection is as robust as ever. “Coming into this game, I was going to feed Ja’Marr,” Burrow said. “I felt he had some opportunities last week (in the 44-38 loss to the Steelers) that we didn’t quite take advantage of. So, I was just going to make sure if I got an opportunity with him, I was going to give it to him.” Both are enjoying prolific seasons. Burrow leads the league in passing yards (3,706) and touchdowns (33). Chase, who is expecting a contract extension that will make him one of the league's highest-paid receivers, leads the NFL in receptions (93), receiving yards (1,319) and touchdowns (15). “We feed off each other,” Burrow said. “We make each other better. We are both really smart players.” Trey Hendrickson’s key sack of Cooper Rush late in the game increased his NFL-leading total to 12 1/2. What needs help The secondary is still inconsistent. The protection provided to Burrow by a reshuffled offensive line was subpar. Granted, he often moves around outside the pocket to try to make something happen, but the franchise quarterback is hit too hard too often. Stock up Chase Brown is growing more every week in his role as the team's No. 1 running back after the season-ending injury to Zack Moss. Brown carried 14 times for 58 yards and caught six passes for 65 yards and a touchdown. ... Cade York, stepping in for the injured Evan McPherson, was 2 for 2 on field goals and made all three of his extra points. Stock down A spongy defense allowed Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle to rush for 131 yards at 7.3 yards per carry. WR CeeDee Lamb beat Bengals cornerback Mike Hilton badly on the Cowboys' first touchdown. Lamb had six catches for 93 yards. Injuries Burrow limped off the field after he was dragged down by his facemask by the Cowboys' Marist Liufau in the fourth quarter. He was seen putting a compression sleeve on left knee before returning for the next Bengals possession. Afterward, he said he was fine. “It’s nothing crazy,” he said. “I just landed on it a couple of times. We’ll see. It’ll be sore for a while, but I’ll be all right.” Key number 4 — Games in a row in which Burrow passed for at least 300 yards and three touchdowns. Monday night's win was the first win in that stretch. Next steps The Bengals have a short week to prepare for the Tennessee Titans (3-10) on Sunday. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLTOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Republicans made claims about illegal voting by noncitizens a centerpiece of their 2024 campaign messaging and plan to push legislation in the new Congress requiring voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship. Yet there's one place with a GOP supermajority where linking voting to citizenship appears to be a nonstarter: Kansas. That's because the state has been there, done that, and all but a few Republicans would prefer not to go there again. Kansas imposed a proof-of-citizenship requirement over a decade ago that grew into one of the biggest political fiascos in the state in recent memory. The law, passed by the state Legislature in 2011 and implemented two years later, ended up blocking the voter registrations of more than 31,000 U.S. citizens who were otherwise eligible to vote. That was 12% of everyone seeking to register in Kansas for the first time. Federal courts ultimately declared the law an unconstitutional burden on voting rights, and it hasn't been enforced since 2018. Kansas provides a cautionary tale about how pursuing an election concern that in fact is extremely rare risks disenfranchising a far greater number of people who are legally entitled to vote. The state’s top elections official, Secretary of State Scott Schwab, championed the idea as a legislator and now says states and the federal government shouldn't touch it. “Kansas did that 10 years ago,” said Schwab, a Republican. “It didn’t work out so well.” Steven Fish, a 45-year-old warehouse worker in eastern Kansas, said he understands the motivation behind the law. In his thinking, the state was like a store owner who fears getting robbed and installs locks. But in 2014, after the birth of his now 11-year-old son inspired him to be “a little more responsible” and follow politics, he didn’t have an acceptable copy of his birth certificate to get registered to vote in Kansas. “The locks didn’t work,” said Fish, one of nine Kansas residents who sued the state over the law. “You caught a bunch of people who didn’t do anything wrong.” Kansas' experience appeared to receive little if any attention outside the state as Republicans elsewhere pursued proof-of-citizenship requirements this year. Arizona enacted a requirement this year, applying it to voting for state and local elections but not for Congress or president. The Republican-led U.S. House passed a proof-of-citizenship requirement in the summer and plans to bring back similar legislation after the GOP won control of the Senate in November. In Ohio, the Republican secretary of state revised the form that poll workers use for voter eligibility challenges to require those not born in the U.S. to show naturalization papers to cast a regular ballot. A federal judge declined to block the practice days before the election. Also, sizable majorities of voters in Iowa, Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and the presidential swing states of North Carolina and Wisconsin were inspired to amend their state constitutions' provisions on voting even though the changes were only symbolic. Provisions that previously declared that all U.S. citizens could vote now say that only U.S. citizens can vote — a meaningless distinction with no practical effect on who is eligible. To be clear, voters already must attest to being U.S. citizens when they register to vote and noncitizens can face fines, prison and deportation if they lie and are caught. “There is nothing unconstitutional about ensuring that only American citizens can vote in American elections,” U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, of Texas, the leading sponsor of the congressional proposal, said in an email statement to The Associated Press. After Kansas residents challenged their state's law, both a federal judge and federal appeals court concluded that it violated a law limiting states to collecting only the minimum information needed to determine whether someone is eligible to vote. That's an issue Congress could resolve. The courts ruled that with “scant” evidence of an actual problem, Kansas couldn't justify a law that kept hundreds of eligible citizens from registering for every noncitizen who was improperly registered. A federal judge concluded that the state’s evidence showed that only 39 noncitizens had registered to vote from 1999 through 2012 — an average of just three a year. In 2013, then-Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican who had built a national reputation advocating tough immigration laws, described the possibility of voting by immigrants living in the U.S. illegally as a serious threat. He was elected attorney general in 2022 and still strongly backs the idea, arguing that federal court rulings in the Kansas case “almost certainly got it wrong.” Kobach also said a key issue in the legal challenge — people being unable to fix problems with their registrations within a 90-day window — has probably been solved. “The technological challenge of how quickly can you verify someone’s citizenship is getting easier,” Kobach said. “As time goes on, it will get even easier.” The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the Kansas case in 2020. But in August, it split 5-4 in allowing Arizona to continue enforcing its law for voting in state and local elections while a legal challenge goes forward. Seeing the possibility of a different Supreme Court decision in the future, U.S. Rep.-elect Derek Schmidt says states and Congress should pursue proof-of-citizenship requirements. Schmidt was the Kansas attorney general when his state's law was challenged. "If the same matter arose now and was litigated, the facts would be different," he said in an interview. But voting rights advocates dismiss the idea that a legal challenge would turn out differently. Mark Johnson, one of the attorneys who fought the Kansas law, said opponents now have a template for a successful court fight. “We know the people we can call," Johnson said. “We know that we’ve got the expert witnesses. We know how to try things like this.” He predicted "a flurry — a landslide — of litigation against this.” Initially, the Kansas requirement's impacts seemed to fall most heavily on politically unaffiliated and young voters. As of fall 2013, 57% of the voters blocked from registering were unaffiliated and 40% were under 30. But Fish was in his mid-30s, and six of the nine residents who sued over the Kansas law were 35 or older. Three even produced citizenship documents and still didn’t get registered, according to court documents. “There wasn’t a single one of us that was actually an illegal or had misinterpreted or misrepresented any information or had done anything wrong,” Fish said. He was supposed to produce his birth certificate when he sought to register in 2014 while renewing his Kansas driver's license at an office in a strip mall in Lawrence. A clerk wouldn't accept the copy Fish had of his birth certificate. He still doesn't know where to find the original, having been born on an Air Force base in Illinois that closed in the 1990s. Several of the people joining Fish in the lawsuit were veterans, all born in the U.S., and Fish said he was stunned that they could be prevented from registering. Liz Azore, a senior adviser to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab, said millions of Americans haven't traveled outside the U.S. and don't have passports that might act as proof of citizenship, or don't have ready access to their birth certificates. She and other voting rights advocates are skeptical that there are administrative fixes that will make a proof-of-citizenship law run more smoothly today than it did in Kansas a decade ago. “It’s going to cover a lot of people from all walks of life,” Avore said. “It’s going to be disenfranchising large swaths of the country.” Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted lower Tuesday in the runup to the highlight of the week for the market, the latest update on inflation that’s coming on Wednesday. The S&P 500 dipped 0.3%, a day after pulling back from its latest all-time high . They’re the first back-to-back losses for the index in nearly a month, as momentum slows following a big rally that has it on track for one of its best years of the millennium . The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 154 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%. Tech titan Oracle dragged on the market and sank 6.7% after reporting growth for the latest quarter that fell just short of analysts’ expectations. It was one of the heaviest weights on the S&P 500, even though CEO Safra Catz said the company saw record demand related to artificial-intelligence technology for its cloud infrastructure business, which trains generative AI models. AI has been a big source of growth that’s helped many companies’ stock prices skyrocket. Oracle’s stock had already leaped more than 80% for the year coming into Tuesday, which raised the bar of expectations for its profit report. In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher ahead of Wednesday’s report on the inflation that U.S. consumers are feeling. Economists expect it to show similar increases as the month before. Wednesday’s update and a report on Thursday about inflation at the wholesale level will be the final big pieces of data the Federal Reserve will get before its meeting next week, where many investors expect the year’s third cut to interest rates . The Fed has been easing its main interest rate from a two-decade high since September to take pressure off the slowing jobs market, after bringing inflation nearly down to its 2% target. Lower rates would help give support to the economy, but they could also provide more fuel for inflation. Expectations for a series of cuts through next year have been a big reason the S&P 500 has set so many records this year. Trading in the options market suggests traders aren’t expecting a very big move for U.S. stocks following Wednesday’s report, according to strategists at Barclays. But a reading far off expectations in either direction could quickly change that. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.22% from 4.20% late Monday. Even though the Fed has been cutting its main interest rate, mortgage rates have been more stubborn to stay high and have been volatile since the autumn. That has hampered the housing industry, and homebuilder Toll Brothers’ stock fell 6.9% even though it delivered profit and revenue for the latest quarter that topped analysts’ expectations. CEO Douglas Yearley Jr. said the luxury builder has been seeing strong demand since the start of its fiscal year six weeks ago, an encouraging signal as it approaches the beginning of the spring selling season in mid-January. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Alaska Air Group soared 13.2% after raising its forecast for profit in the current quarter. The airline said demand for flying around the holidays has been stronger than expected. It also approved a plan to buy back up to $1 billion of its stock, along with new service from Seattle to Tokyo and Seoul . Boeing climbed 4.5% after saying it’s resuming production of its bestselling plane , the 737 Max, for the first time since 33,000 workers began a seven-week strike that ended in early November. Vail Resorts rose 2.5% after the ski resort operator reported a smaller first-quarter loss than analysts expected in what is traditionally its worst quarter. All told, the S&P 500 fell 17.94 points to 6,034.91. The Dow dipped 154.10 to 44,247.83, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 49.45 to 19,687.24. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed in China after the world’s second-largest economy said its exports rose by less than expected in November. Stocks rose 0.6% in Shanghai but fell 0.5% in Hong Kong. Indexes fell across much of Europe ahead of a meeting this week by the European Central Bank, where the widespread expectation is for another cut in interest rates. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.Breyten Breytenbach, who died Sunday, was one of South Africa's most honoured writers, who found beauty in his Afrikaans language but was horrified at the white supremacy imposed by his government. The poet, author and painter had not lived in South Africa for decades, leaving in the early 1960s to settle in Paris, where he became a global voice against apartheid. What was intended to be a short and secret trip back in 1975 led to him spending seven years in jail, two in solitary confinement, after he was betrayed and arrested. French president Francois Mitterrand helped secure his release in 1982 and he returned to France to become a citizen. He travelled back to South Africa regularly, according to his daughter Daphnee Breytenbach, who confirmed his death to AFP. "My father, the South African painter and poet Breyten Breytenbach, died peacefully on Sunday, November 24, in Paris, at the age of 85," she said. "Immense artist, militant against apartheid, he fought for a better world until the end." Breytenbach was born in the small Western Cape town of Bonnievale in 1939 at a time when Afrikaans was emerging with a distinct identity as a language, having been derided as "kitchen Dutch". When in 1964 Breytenbach published his first volume of poetry -- "Die ysterkoei moet sweet", or The Iron Cow Must Sweat -- Afrikaans was not just ascendent but had given the name "apartheid" to South Africa's brutal system of racial segregation. With Afrikaners in power, their language became ever more associated with the regime. "I'd never reject Afrikaans as a language, but I reject it as part of the Afrikaner political identity. I no longer consider myself an Afrikaner," he said in an interview with The New York Times the following year. In his language and politics, Breytenbach pushed back against the strictures of the country in which he was born. He travelled around Europe in his early 20s, eventually settling in 1962 in Paris, where he met his wife, Yolande Ngo Thi Hoang Lien, who was born in Vietnam and raised in France. She was refused a visa to visit South Africa in the late 1960s as she was considered "non-white" by the apartheid system. Breytenbach returned to the country in the early 1970s on a false passport to deliver money to the anti-apartheid struggle and meet white activists. But he was discovered and sentenced to nine years in prison, serving seven. Of his more than 50 books, most are in Afrikaans. His acclaimed 1984 prison memoir, "The True Confession of an Albino Terrorist", is in English. In the book, he recalls the horrors of hearing fellow inmates being hanged, often for political crimes. "Very often –- no, all the time really –- I relive those years of horror and corruption, and I try to imagine, as I did then with the heart an impediment to breathing, what it must be like to be executed. What it must be like to be. Executed," he wrote. His path crossed once, briefly, with another famous inmate. Nelson Mandela was for a time transferred from Robben Island to Pollsmoor prison in Cape Town, where Breytenbach was serving his time. The writer was tasked with preparing new prison clothes for the future president. Breytenbach eventually turned to painting to portray surreal human and animal figures, often in captivity, with his art displayed in Johannesburg, Brussels, Amsterdam, Hong Kong and Paris. His literature gathered several prizes, including the international Zbigniew Herbert International Literary Award (2017), the Mahmoud Darwish Literature Prize (2010) and the Van der Hoogt prize for Dutch literature (1972). "His poems are rich in metaphors and are a complex mixture of references to Buddhism, Afrikaans idiomatic speech, and memories of the South African landscape," according to the Hague-based Writers Unlimited foundation. For all his activism, when democracy arrived in 1994, the older and gray-bearded Breytenbach did not return to embrace the new South Africa. He wrestled with the failings of the democratic government, even with Mandela, despairing at what he called in Harpers magazine in 2008 the "seemingly never-ending parade of corrupt clowns in power at all levels". Breytenbach also taught at the University of Cape Town, the Goree Institute in Dakar and New York University. zm-gs-br/lhd/js
Agilent Technologies, Inc. ( NYSE:A – Get Free Report ) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 31st will be paid a dividend of 0.248 per share by the medical research company on Wednesday, January 22nd. This represents a $0.99 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.73%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 31st. This is a boost from Agilent Technologies’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Agilent Technologies has raised its dividend payment by an average of 19.0% annually over the last three years. Agilent Technologies has a payout ratio of 17.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Agilent Technologies to earn $6.16 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.99 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.1%. Agilent Technologies Price Performance A stock opened at $135.54 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $135.33 and a 200 day moving average of $136.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57, a current ratio of 2.09 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The company has a market cap of $38.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.67, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.07. Agilent Technologies has a 1 year low of $124.16 and a 1 year high of $155.35. Analyst Ratings Changes A number of research firms have recently weighed in on A. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Agilent Technologies from $153.00 to $150.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Evercore ISI lifted their target price on shares of Agilent Technologies from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price target on Agilent Technologies from $157.00 to $155.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their price objective on Agilent Technologies from $140.00 to $135.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $143.62. View Our Latest Analysis on Agilent Technologies Agilent Technologies Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) Agilent Technologies, Inc provides application focused solutions to the life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Life Sciences and Applied Markets, Diagnostics and Genomics, and Agilent CrossLab. The Life Sciences and Applied Markets segment offers liquid chromatography systems and components; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry systems; gas chromatography systems and components; gas chromatography mass spectrometry systems; inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry instruments; atomic absorption instruments; microwave plasma-atomic emission spectrometry instruments; inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry instruments; raman spectroscopy; cell analysis plate based assays; flow cytometer; real-time cell analyzer; cell imaging systems; microplate reader; laboratory software; information management and analytics; laboratory automation and robotic systems; dissolution testing; and vacuum pumps, and measurement technologies. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Agilent Technologies Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Agilent Technologies and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .