The D3football.com Region 5 football team was announced Wednesday, and the Quad-Cities region was well represented. Among the local selections were three Augustana College standouts. Running back Mike DiGioia was a second-team offensive selection and teammates Joren Clem (kicker) and Breyden Smith (wide receiver/return man) were second-team specialists. Three former area prep standouts — Tucker Kinney, Kade Tippet, and Tevin Baker — played their way back onto the all-region team again this fall. NCAA Division III realigned Division III football into six regions in 2021. Region 5 includes the American Rivers Conference, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW), the Midwest Conference and the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference. Kinney, a former Central DeWitt High School standout who is now a fifth-year senior at Wartburg, was a first-team offensive tackle selection. It was the third straight season he was named a first-team all-region selection. He helped the American River Conference champion Knights to a 10-2 mark this fall, their season ending last Saturday in a 24-14 home NCAA Division III playoff loss to Bethel University. Tippet, a senior on the Central College team and former North Scott High School prep, was selected as a second-team selection at offensive tackle, helping the Dutch to an 8-2 record. He was a third-team All-Region 5 selection last season. Baker, a fifth-year senior at Monmouth College from Kewanee, was a repeat second-team selection as a defensive end. The Midwest Conference Defensive MVP helped the Fighting Scots to an 8-3 record this fall as he finished with seven sacks, 16 TFLs and 11 pass breakups. This season marked the second in a row Augustana (4-6, 3-6 CCIW) had three players earn all-region spots. “Congrats to Mikey, Joren and Breyden,” Augie coach Steve Bell said in a social media post. “Tremendous men and so glad they got recognized for their outstanding talent on the field. Game changers for Augie football.” DiGioia (senior, Schaumburg, Illinois) was the CCIW's top rusher this past season, finishing with 1,055 yards and the only player in the CCIW to surpass the 1,000-yard mark. He also led the league in yards per game at 105.5 and was second in rushing touchdowns with 10. DiGioia is the first Augustana running back in 19 seasons to earn all-region honors. Clem (senior, Columbus, Ohio) is the first Augustana punter/kicker since 2011 to land all-region honors. He was 10-for-12 on field goals and had a long of 45 yards this year. He also served as the team's punter and was second in the CCIW in punts inside the 20-yard line with 14. Smith (junior, Arlington Heights, Illinois) led the CCIW in both total punt return yards (217) and punt return average (18.1) and was sixth in kick return yardage (440/23.2 yards per kick). On offense, Smith was top 10 in the conference in nearly all receiving categories, including fourth in both receptions (59) and receptions per game (5.9). There were 31 players from CCIW schools represented on the All-Region 5 team. Those selections included a pair of North Central standouts who earned both the offensive and defensive Region 5 Player of the Year honors. Cardinals’ quarterback Luke Lehnen earned the D3football.com 2024 All-Region 5 offensive honor for the second year in a row, and defensive tackle John Sullivan was the Region 5 Defensive Player of the Year. Lehnen (fifth-year, Chatham, Illinois) has completed 152 of 220 passes for 2,589 yards and 33 touchdowns against five interceptions. He has added 845 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns on 68 carries, averaging 12.4 yards per carry. Sullivan (junior, Lake Villa, Illinois) has recorded 131⁄2 tackles for loss, six quarterback hurries and five sacks for the Cardinals this season. He has 50 total tackles, 28 of them solo, as well as a forced fumble and a fumble recovery for a defense allowing 12.4 points per game this season. North Central coach Brad Spencer, who has led the Cardinals to a 12-0 record and another trip to the Division III national quarterfinals where they host Springfield College at noon Saturday, is the Region 5 Coach of the Year. It’s his first selection as a D3football.com regional Coach of the Year. DiGioia Smith Clem Kinney Tippet Baker Get local news delivered to your inbox! sports writer/golf editor {{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.Netflix's Squid Game Season 1 was one of the biggest hits ever for the streamer. The Korean drama series from Hwang Dong-hyuk pitted those on the lower end of the socio-economic ladder , and deeply in debt, against each other in a twisted win-or-die tournament for a large cash prize. So, in celebration of Season 2, Jung-jae and Seo-hwan sat down with me to reflect on behind-the-scenes moments and important themes from Squid Game 's second installment. 1. What messages about classism and society in this season do you think are most important for viewers to take away? Lee Seo-hwan : Being a player in Season 2, I felt that this season is not really about classism, but it's really about the choices that people make. Choice, in and of itself, becomes very important in Season 2 because we have a voting system. And it may look like a democracy from the outset, but there's a lot of psychological warfare going on behind the scenes. And it's not a vertical, hierarchical situation, but it's horizontal. There are a lot of different sides, people taking sides and being in silos, and when you make a choice, you understand that you have to be responsible for your choice. That is the main theme of this season. Lee Jung-jae: What really stood out for me in Season 2 is that we have to vote for every round, as my friend just said, and the vote becomes as tense as the games themselves. There's so much at stake for the participants, and they want to talk people into siding with them, and if you don't side with me, you become my enemy that I have to kill. There's a lot of tension around that. 2. Do you think that represents the world right now? Lee Jung-jae: I think it's parallel to the political sphere that we see nowadays. It's so polarized, it's just two sides, and they can't come to a compromise. So it feels like, "Is this the right way to go? Is this how politics should be?" Competing with other people is good, but should we not have so much conflict with people? So those are the questions that Squid Game Season 2 deals with, and I think it could provide a lot of food for thought for the viewers. 3. What's an important difference between Season 2 and Season 1 that creates a different feeling or element? Lee Seo-hwan : In Season 2, you see less of the VIPs compared to Season 1. I thought about why director Hwang did it that way. When we don't see the VIPs, the entire drama, the Squid Game Show, becomes more like The Truman Show . The Front Man is like the producer of the Truman Squid Game Show , and we are the viewers who are watching from afar. 4. Jung-jae, in Season 1, your character's main motive was making money. But this season, revenge or retribution is his main motive. How do you feel like your character evolved? Lee Jung-jae: Gi-hun is just an ordinary man. He doesn't have any special abilities. So I question myself, and I think the viewers would question themselves: Can he really bring the people behind the game to justice? Does he have the power? Could he complete his mission of ending the game by creating unity with the participants? Or maybe people would not want to listen to him. They might attack him, and maybe he would be in danger. 5. If you could play any other character in Season 2, who would it be? Lee Jung-jae: I actually want to try playing Gi-hun again. 6. Why is that? Lee Jung-jae: I could really relate to Gi-hun, because after witnessing all the atrocities that happened in the game, he just couldn't turn a blind eye to it. And I think I would have done the same. 7. Seo-hwan, what is your favorite scene that you filmed as Jeong-bae? Lee Seo-hwan: My favorite scene is when I'm talking with Gi-hun about what we did in the past. And I tell him, "Let's grab a soju when we get out of here." That line really tells me that he wants his normal life back, and he knows how precious that life was. We always say this in Korea, "Let's grab a soju." That means, "We'll meet up later," or "I'll see you again." We always say it when we part ways in Korea, but when I was saying the line in the show, it actually brought me to tears. For the first time, Jeong-bae is really noticing that his life is a very precious one, and he wants to return to that life. 8. Why is Jeong-bae's friendship with Gi-hun integral to this season? Lee Seo-hwan: They used to be coworkers, and they protested together for their rights, but they both got fired. So they're not just friends; they're more like comrades, and I'm an ex-Marine too, in the show. So that bond, that bromance, and that loyalty that I feel with Gi-hun, it's something that's very special. And it might sound cheesy, but I could even give up my life for my friend. 9. What was the hardest scene for both of you to film? Lee Seo-hwan: The round and round game. The lights would come on and off quickly. There would be sparks of lights. I have really bad eyesight, so that was quite blinding for me, and it was really slippery on the floor with all that blood. That was the most challenging scene for me to shoot. Lee Jung-jae: I would like to say that all scenes and all cuts were extremely difficult for me [ Laughs ]. 10. And finally, what real-life kid's game are you an expert at, and you feel like you could beat anyone? Lee Seo-hwan : [ Laughs ] The Sugar Honeycombs for me. Lee Jung-jae: Red Light, Green Light!
Man accused in the burning death of a woman on a New York subway appears in courtWASHINGTON — While Matt Gaetz has withdrawn from the nomination process for attorney general, President-elect Donald Trump has picked several other people for his Cabinet and key staff positions who have been accused of some form of sexual misconduct. Trump himself has long been accused of abusing or mistreating women and once was caught bragging about grabbing women by the genitals. He was found liable by a New York City jury for sexual abuse and defamation and eventually ordered to pay the woman, E. Jean Carroll, $83 million in damages. Taken together, there are a striking number of incidents in which potential high-ranking government officials in Trump's second administration face allegations of sexual abuse. Trump and all of his picks for government have denied the claims against them, with some of the people accused arguing the cases are driven by politics. Here's a look at what's known about the cases: President-elect Donald Trump Jurors in New York last year found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll, an advice columnist, in 1996. The verdict was split: Jurors rejected Carroll’s claim that she was raped, finding Trump responsible for a lesser degree of sexual abuse. Jurors also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll over her allegations. Trump did not attend the civil trial and was absent when the verdict was read. Carroll was one of more than a dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault or harassment. She went public in a 2019 memoir with her allegation that the Republican raped her in the dressing room of a posh Manhattan department store. Trump denied it , saying he never encountered Carroll at the store and did not know her. He has called her a “nut job” who invented “a fraudulent and false story” to sell a memoir. He has similarly denied claims by other women. Pete Hegseth, nominee for secretary of defense A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, according to a detailed investigative report made public this week. Hegseth told police at the time that the encounter had been consensual and denied any wrongdoing, the report said. News of the allegations surfaced last week when local officials released a brief statement confirming that a woman had accused Hegseth of sexual assault in October 2017 after he had spoken at a Republican women’s event in Monterey. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Parlatore, said in a statement that the police report confirms “what I have said all along that the incident was fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false, which is why no charges were filed.” Parlatore said a payment was made to the woman as part of a confidential settlement a few years after the police investigation because Hegseth was concerned that she was prepared to file a lawsuit that he feared could have resulted in him being fired from Fox News, where he was a popular host. Parlatore would not reveal the amount of the payment. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nominee for secretary of health and human services A woman who babysat for Kennedy and his second wife told Vanity Fair magazine that he groped her in the late 1990s, when she was 23. Kennedy did not deny the allegation, telling a podcast: “I had a very, very rambunctious youth.” He texted the woman an apology after the story was published. According to an interview the woman gave this week with USA Today, she said she was babysitting for his children at Kennedy's home in Mount Kisco, New York. She said that the assault happened soon after she began working there. During a kitchen table meeting with Kennedy and another person, she said she felt him rubbing her leg under the table. She told the newspaper that another time, Kennedy, then 46, asked her to rub lotion on him when he was shirtless and she obliged because she wanted to get it over with. And he grabbed her in a kitchen pantry and groped her, blocking her exit. She stayed on the job for a few more months before leaving. Linda McMahon, nominee for secretary of education A lawsuit filed last month alleges that McMahon knowingly enabled sexual exploitation of children by a World Wrestling Entertainment employee as early as the 1980s. She denies the allegations. The suit was filed in October in Maryland, where a recent law change eliminated the state’s statute of limitations for child sex abuse claims, opening the doors for victims to sue regardless of their age or how much time has passed. The complaint alleges that Melvin Phillips, who died in 2012, would target young men from disadvantaged backgrounds and hire them as “ring boys” to help with the preparations for wrestling matches. Phillips would then assault them in his dressing room, hotels and even in the wrestlers’ locker room, according to the complaint, which was filed on behalf of five men. The abuse detailed in the lawsuit occurred over several years during Phillips’ long tenure with the organization spanning from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Because of his death, Phillips is not among the named defendants. Instead, the complaint targets WWE founders Linda McMahon and her husband Vince, who grew the organization into the powerhouse it is today. The couple was well aware of Phillips’ brazen misconduct but did little to stop him, according to the complaint. “This civil lawsuit based upon thirty-plus year-old allegations is filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations regarding Linda McMahon,” said Laura Brevetti, Linda McMahon’s lawyer, in a statement. “The matter at the time was investigated by company attorneys and the FBI, which found no grounds to continue the investigation. Ms. McMahon will vigorously defend against this baseless lawsuit and without doubt ultimately succeed.” Brevetti confirmed Linda and Vince McMahon are separated. Elon Musk, Trump's choice to lead the new Department of Government Efficiency Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was accused of sexual misconduct by a flight attendant contracted by SpaceX who worked on his private jet in 2016. He denied the claim. A 2022 report by Business Insider said SpaceX paid the woman $250,000 in severance in 2018 in exchange for her agreeing not to file a lawsuit over her claim. The Business Insider report was based on an account by the flight attendant’s friend, who said the flight attendant told her about the incident shortly after it happened. The report also said the flight attendant was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prohibits her from discussing the payment or anything else about Musk and SpaceX. SpaceX didn’t respond to emails seeking comment Friday. Musk responded to the allegations on Twitter, which he was in the process of buying at the time they surfaced. “And, for the record, those wild accusations are utterly untrue,” he wrote in response to one user who tweeted in support of him. He replied to another: “In my 30 year career, including the entire MeToo era, there’s nothing to report, but, as soon as I say I intend to restore free speech to Twitter & vote Republican, suddenly there is ...” Matt Gaetz, who withdrew as Trump's choice for attorney general The former Florida congressman was embroiled in a sex trafficking investigation by the Justice Department he had been tapped to lead. He also was under scrutiny by the House Ethics Committee over allegations including sexual misconduct — until he resigned from Congress this week. He then withdrew his name for consideration. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls had ended with no federal charges against him. Federal investigators scrutinized a trip that Gaetz took to the Bahamas with a group of women and a doctor who donated to his campaign, and whether the women were paid or received gifts to have sex with the men, according to people familiar with the matter who were not allowed to publicly discuss the investigation. Two women House investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex and one of the women testified she saw him having sex with a 17-year-old, according to an attorney for the women. The committee began its review of Gaetz in April 2021, deferred its work in response to a Justice Department request, and renewed its work shortly after Gaetz announced that the Justice Department had ended a sex trafficking investigation.
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The Syrian rebel forces that toppled Bashar Assad said Wednesday they have advanced farther into the eastern portion of the country as they continue to redraw the map and fill the vacuum left by Assad’s ousting. The news comes a day after Syria’s new interim leader Mohammed al-Bashir announced he was assuming the role of the country’s caretaker prime minister until March 1. Bashir previously served as the head of the rebel administration’s self-formed “salvation government.” As Syria and the rest of the world come to terms with the end of Assad’s rule, the U.S. and Syrian rebels are moving quickly to hold members of his regime accountable for war crimes. READ: Here’s a look back on the rise and fall of Assad and how he transformed from a beacon of hope into an iron-fisted leader. Born in 1965 in Damascus, Syria, Assad is the second son of former Syrian ruler Hafez Assad. Hafez Assad rose through the ranks of the Arab socialist Baath party, taking control of the Syrian branch of the party before becoming president. He led Syria for 30 years, enforcing his totalitarian rule through control of the military, security forces and a secret police force. Bashar Assad, second in the line of succession, was not expected to become president. His older brother Basil, a trained engineer turned politician, had been groomed to take over. Bashar Assad instead became a doctor in the 1980s and was studying in London to be an ophthalmologist in the early 1990s. But when Basil Assad died in a car accident in 1994, Bashar Assad was recalled to Syria to replace his brother as heir apparent. He entered the military academy in 1994 and was given control of Syria’s occupation of Lebanon in 1998. Following the death of Hafez Assad in June 2000, Bashar Assad became president that July. Reuters Dec. 11, 2024 Quick Descent Into Dictatorship Assad’s rise to power encouraged many in the Middle East and in the West, who were hopeful that the youthful, educated leader would bring reform and modernization to Syria. Assad initially pursued reform through economic change rather than political change, prioritizing free markets in place of state monopolies. He also released a large number of political prisoners in 2001 to show Western countries that Syria was evolving and progressing. But Assad’s reforms proved superficial, and his government quickly descended into autocracy backed by the military, while his economic plan mostly benefited the elite who were loyal to his family. Soon after his taking office, a reform movement known as the Damascus Spring led by writers, intellectuals and activists began. The movement called for transparency and democracy but was quickly suppressed. Assad’s favorability on the world stage further eroded in 2005 after Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister of Lebanon, was assassinated in a truck bomb explosion in Beirut. Syria was widely believed to be behind the killing, and a United Nations international independent investigation commission report found “probable cause” to believe high-ranking members of Syrian intelligence and the Assad family directly supervised the assassination. Hariri’s death set off a period of massive unrest in Lebanon, leading to former President George W. Bush singling out Syria and Iran as the “root cause” of the attacks. In December 2010, a Tunisian fruit vendor set himself on fire in protest of widespread corruption, kicking off waves of demonstrations across the Middle East in what is now known as the Arab Spring. Protests soon swelled beyond Tunisia into North Africa and the Levant, forcing longtime dictators in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen to step down. The protests spread into Syria after 15 boys in the city of Deraa spray-painted a slogan associated with the demonstrations on a school wall. The boys were arrested and tortured, setting off a firestorm. Protesters took to the streets calling for an end to the Assad regime, more freedom and an end to corruption. Assad responded immediately, directing security forces to fire on demonstrators. Civilians who were arrested were subject to torture and extrajudicial killings in detention centers. The Syrian army in 2011 deployed tanks to Deraa, killing thousands and cutting survivors off from food, water, medicine and more for 11 days. The fighting quickly spread to other cities in and around Damascus, escalating the conflict into a full-blown civil war. Assad drew international condemnation when reports emerged in August 2013 that his forces used the chemical agent Sarin against an area held by rebel forces. The State Department says more than 1,400 people died in the rocket strike. The attack infamously crossed former President Barack Obama’s “red line” for U.S. intervention in the conflict, yet after much consideration Obama opted against direct U.S. military involvement. The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has estimated 162,390 civilians were killed, and the Syrian government and its allies are held responsible for 139,609 of those deaths. The U.N. Refugee Agency says the ongoing crisis has resulted in more than 5 million refugees who have fled – most of whom have been taken in by neighboring countries in the region – and 7.2 million more people internally displaced within Syria. After Assad’s hold over Syria almost collapsed twice in 2013 and 2015, outside forces helped him claw back control. Iran directed Hezbollah fighters and military advisers from its Revolutionary Guard Corps to help bolster him, while Russia, Syria’s historic patron, provided financial support and diplomatic cover. Moscow also operates military bases within Syria that are crucial to its ability to project power globally. The creation of the Islamic State group’s caliphate that claimed one-third of Syria’s territory prompted support from the U.S. in the form of fighters. And in 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent weaponry and air defense systems to help Assad beat back rebel factions. But the rebel groups maintained a stronghold in the northwest portion of the country and the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham emerged from the Syrian branch of al-Qaida. The U.S. and the United Nations designated it a terrorist organization, but it has since moved to adopt a less extreme ideology. With Russia preoccupied by its war on Ukraine and Iran reeling from the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the rebels, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, launched a lightning offensive that saw them take the cities of Aleppo, Hama, Homs and Damascus in rapid succession after the conflict had been largely frozen for a decade. On Sunday, Assad and his family fled to Russia where they were granted asylum, ending his 24 years in power.
Actor Nayanthara, has, for the first time, opened up about her controversy with actor Dhanush. In an interview with THR, Nayanthara revealed that she was left with no other option but to go public with her problems, because Dhanush refused to answer her calls. Nayanthara opens up about her issues with Dhanush Speaking about the issue, Nayanthara said, “There were number of calls that Vignesh had made to (Dhanush’s) manager, we reached out to a lot friends, who are friends with him. But none of that worked. Then it came to a point that we did not want to use the clips. Both of us thought that it’s okay for him to not give the NOC because it’s his rights. It’s his film. He has all the rights to say use these clips or don’t use these clips. We went past that whole thing. We just wanted to use four lines that Vignesh had wrote in the film. That was very personal to us. So that’s the only thing we wanted in the documentary. For which we really, really tried. Those four lines would sum up our life and our love. That’s why it was so important for us to have those four lines and that’s what we were trying to get." She further said, “I am not someone who usually likes to call someone or disturb them to ask them for a help or any kind of obligation. But I thought it is very important for the documentary we were doing and I genuinely thought he would be the first person to say okay to it because he’s been a friend. It’s not that we were born enemies, we’ve always been really, really good friends. I don’t know where and how it all changed over the past 10 years. I don’t want to get into that, he might have his own reasons, I might have my own reasons, but I got to that point where I actually spoke to the manager, which I usually don’t." “I just wanted to have a conversation with him to understand what is the problem, why are you so angry with us, or are you really angry with us, or is it something that people around you are creating or if there is any sort of misunderstanding, can we clear it? We don’t have to be the best of friends but can we clear it out so that when we see each other somewhere someday, we can greet each other. This is what I exactly wanted and I really tried," the actress said. For the unversed, last month, Nayanthara shared a shocking open letter to call out Dhanush for suing her and her team for using BTS footage from Naanum Rowdy Dhaan. The film was produced by Dhanush. He issued a notice seeking damages of Rs 10 crore from Nayanthara and her documentary, Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale. Get Latest News Live on Times Now along with Breaking News and Top Headlines from Tamil, Entertainment News and around the world.An Indian think tank has described Starlink, a satellite internet service provider which recently entered the Zimbabwean market, as a because its biggest customer is the American government intelligence and military. The Kutniti Foundation, a think tank based in New Delhi, says Starlink is an American military and intelligence tool whose dual-use technology enables it to push its own narrative and purpose to be an altruistic one, as a provider of the internet for the underserved populations and regions. “However, its biggest customer and promoter is the American government intelligence and military,” Kutniti says. “In addition, it is well known that the owner of Starlink, Elon Musk, is close to various private intelligence companies, and is a highly politically exposed person in the US, including but not limited to Palantir Technologies USA, and the Trump Election 2024,” the think tank says. Trump won the US elections two weeks ago and will be sworn in in January. He has appointed Musk to his cabinet together with Vivek Ramaswamy to run the Department of Government Efficiency. Starlink and its parent company SpaceX got a lot of business contracts from the United States government during Trump’s first term from 2017-2021 and continued to get support from the Biden administration. Starlink is planning to introduce its services to India, the world’s most populous country with an estimated 1.45 billion people. India is also the world’s fifth-largest economy after the United States, China, Japan and Germany. In their paper entitled: published in the in September this year, Yan Jiajie and Yu Nanping say Starlink will pose new threats to the national defence and security of other countries. “As a low-orbit satellite internet communication system, Starlink can provide global, dead zone-free, informatised military reconnaissance and communication services to support the operational plans of the army, navy, and air force,” they say. “With the space battlefield becoming an increasingly important arena of competition between major powers, core satellite internet technology can be used to threaten the strategic security of other countries and gain the upper hand in future wars.” Citing examples, they say: “On January 3, 2020, the United States used a UAV to take out Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani. “On November 27 of the same year, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, head of Iran’s nuclear program and its chief nuclear scientist was assassinated near Tehran. “These actions were made possible by the global high-speed communication and space-air coordination capabilities achieved via satellite networks. If the Starlink project is applied on a large scale in the military field in the future, it will further enhance the US military’s satellite communication and unmanned combat capabilities.” UAV stands for unmanned aerial vehicle.CDC chief urges focus on health threats as agency confronts political changes
The overall situation along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) is "stable" but "sensitive" and broad consensus was reached to restore ground situation based on principles of "equal and mutual security", the defence ministry said on Thursday, weeks after Indian and Chinese militaries disengaged from last two friction points in eastern Ladakh. In an year-end review, the ministry referred to the understanding reached between the two sides on October 21 on disengagement and said patrolling activity has commenced in traditional areas in Depsang and Demchok. ET Year-end Special Reads Corporate Kalesh: Top family disputes of India Inc in 2024 The world of business lost these eminent people in 2024 Fast, faster, fastest: How 2024 put more speed into your shopping "Overall situation along the LAC is stable but sensitive," it said. Broad consensus has been achieved to restore the ground situation based on principles of equal and mutual security following prolonged negotiations at diplomatic and military levels, the ministry said on the understanding. "Consensus achieved includes disengagement and relocation of troops from the friction areas of Depsang and Demchok followed by joint verification," it said. "Currently, blocking positions have been removed by both sides and joint verification has been completed. Patrolling activity has commenced to traditional patrolling areas in Depsang and Demchok," the ministry said in a brief on Indian Army 's activities in 2024. 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Last week, NSA Ajit Doval travelled to Beijing and held tallks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) dialogue on the boundary dispute. The decision to revive the SR dialogue mechanism was taken at a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Kazan on October 23, two days after India and China firmed up the disengagement pact , effectively ending the over four-year border standoff along the LAC in eastern Ladakh. On the situation along the LoC with Pakistan, the ministry said relentless counter terror operations were carried out while constantly reviewing emerging and future threats to national security. Infrastructure development in border areas being one of the key imperatives of operational preparedness was given impetus in consonance with the 'Viksit Bharat Vision' of the government, it said. "The perspective plan of BRO (Border Roads Organisation) has been finalised till year 2028, wherein, 470 roads of approximately 27,000 kms will be contructed. The perspective plan of other agencies roads is being synchronised with the plans of BRO," it said. The report also mentioned the Indian Navy's deployment in critical sea lanes following the Israel-Hamas conflict. "The high tempo of operational deployments of Indian Navy assets continues to be maintained, with a close watch on Indian flagged merchant vessels and vessels carrying critical commodities for India," it said. Over the last one year, in response to Houthi shipping attacks, and rising incidents of piracy in the Western Arabian Sea, the Indian Navy has deployed over 30 ships in the region and has responded to over 25 incidents, the ministry said. "The credible and swift actions of the Indian navy saved more than 400 lives, irrespective of the nationality of the crew. As of November 2024, Indian Navy has safely escorted over 230 Merchant Vessels, carrying over 90 Lakh Metric Tons of cargo, valued at over USD 4 billion," it said. The ministry said Indian Navy's efforts have garnered international and national acclaim, consolidating its position as a 'preferred security partner' and 'first responder'. It also said that the Central Servicing Development Organisation is taking forward the tri-services integration of common aviation assets with the Indian Army and the Indian Navy. The ministry said the IAF is in the process of establishing six new defence wings, commencing with Spain, Armenia and Ivory Coast, while continuously exploring avenues to increase its presence in the Indo Pacific region, Europe, the Americas as well as Africa. The report said defence exports reached a record high of Rs 21,083 crore in financial year 2023-24, registering a growth of 32.5 per cent over the last financial year. 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Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Rana Tanveer Hussain met with Turkish ambassador to discuss ways to enhance agricultural cooperation between Pakistan and Turkiye. The meeting focused on exploring new opportunities for partnership under the Strategic Economic Framework, with an emphasis on boosting agricultural trade and facilitating technology transfer. The federal minister highlighted Pakistan's ability to provide quality agricultural products such as rice, wheat, mangoes and dry fruits. He expressed the readiness to expand exports to Turkiye. They agreed on several key measures that included an agreement to enhance agricultural cooperation, particularly in technology transfer and disease control. Pakistan offered quality agricultural products including rice, wheat, mangoes and livestock products. Both sides discussed plans to establish joint ventures in agricultural mechanisation, aquaculture breeding and advanced irrigation systems. COMMENTS Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see ourPanaji: The Goa Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the director of social welfare over a news report that people have not received their monthly benefits under the Deendayal Social Security Scheme ( DSSS ) over the last few months. Based on the news report, the human rights body said “prima facie, this indicates violation of human rights of the beneficiaries,” and sought an explanation from the directorate of social welfare by Jan 3. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , Location Guesser and Mini Crossword . Spread love this holiday season with these Christmas wishes , messages , and quotes .
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