
Brock Bowers of the Las Vegas Raiders moved past Pro Football Hall of Famer Mike Ditka on Sunday to set the NFL record for most receiving yards by a tight end in his rookie season and also set the record for most receptions by a rookie, regardless of position. Bowers has 108 receptions to top the mark set last season by Puka Nacua (105) of the Los Angeles Rams. Bowers' yardage stands at 1,144 after having seven receptions for 77 yards in a 25-10 road victory over the New Orleans Saints. Bowers also set a franchise receptions for catches in a season, surpassing Darren Waller (107 in 2020). "It's awesome," Bowers said of the records in a postgame interview on Fox. "You never know what to expect coming up to the next level. It's been everything and more." Bowers' third catch on Sunday -- a 13-yard grab late in the second quarter against the Saints -- pushed his season total to 1,087 yards. Ditka totaled 1,076 receiving yards in 14 games with the Chicago Bears in 1961. Bowers, 22, set the record for receptions by a rookie tight end earlier this season by eclipsing the total of 86 reeled in by Sam LaPorta of the Detroit Lions in 2023. Bowers was selected by the Raiders with the 13th overall pick of the 2024 NFL Draft. Despite all his catches, he has just four scoring receptions. While with Georgia, Bowers was the first back-to-back winner of the Mackey Award (2022, 2023), which is given to the top tight end in college football. --Field Level MediaJimmy Carter, the 100-year-old former US president and Nobel peace laureate who rose from humble beginnings in rural Georgia to lead the nation from 1977 to 1981, has died, his nonprofit foundation said Sunday. Carter had been in hospice care since mid-February 2023 at his home in Plains, Georgia — the same small town where he was born and once ran a peanut farm before becoming governor of the Peach State and running for the White House. Carter died “peacefully” at his home in Plains, “surrounded by his family,” The Carter Center said in a statement. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights and unselfish love,” Chip Carter, the former president’s son, said in the statement. Carter was the oldest living ex-US leader and the nation’s longest-lived president — an outcome that seemed unlikely back in 2015 when the Southern Democrat revealed he had brain cancer. But the US Navy veteran and fervent Christian repeatedly defied the odds to enjoy a long and fruitful post-presidency, after four years in the Oval Office often seen as disappointing. During his single term, Carter placed a commitment on human rights and social justice, enjoying a strong first two years that included brokering a peace deal between Israel and Egypt dubbed the Camp David Accords. But his administration hit numerous snags — the most serious being the taking of US hostages in Iran and the disastrous failed attempt to rescue the 52 captive Americans in 1980. He also came in for criticism for his handling of an oil crisis. In November of that year, Republican challenger Ronald Reagan clobbered Carter at the polls, relegating the Democrat to just one term. Reagan, a former actor and governor of California, swept into office on a wave of staunch conservatism. – Active post-presidency – As the years passed, a more nuanced image of Carter emerged — one that took into account his significant post-presidential activities and reassessed his achievements. He founded the Carter Center in 1982 to pursue his vision of world diplomacy, and he was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to promote social and economic justice. Related News Ex-US president Jimmy Carter, 100, casts vote Jimmy Carter becomes first US President to clock 100 DNC: Ex-US President, Jimmy Carter, can't wait to vote Harris, says grandson He observed numerous elections around the world and emerged as a prominent international mediator, tackling global problems from North Korea to Bosnia. Carter, known for his toothy smile, said basic Christian tenets such as justice and love served as the bedrock of his presidency. He taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist, his church in Plains, well into his 90s. In recent years, he had received various hospital treatments, including when he revealed in August 2015 that he had brain cancer and was undergoing radiation. US Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, who is the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King Jr preached, wished the Carter family comfort as the former president entered hospice last year. “Across life’s seasons, President Jimmy Carter, a man of great faith, has walked with God,” Warnock wrote on X, then Twitter. “In this tender time of transitioning, God is surely walking with him.” In April 2021, President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, met with the Carters at their home in Plains. The White House later released a photo showing the couples smiling together, although only Rosalynn was seen by the press outside, bidding the Bidens farewell while using a walker. Rosalynn, Carter’s wife of 77 years, died on November 19, 2023 at age 96. The former president, who looked frail, poignantly appeared at her memorial service in a wheelchair, with a blanket on his lap bearing their likenesses. Carter is survived by the couple’s four children, three sons and a daughter. AFP
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Hiring your children to work on Small Business Saturday can teach them positive work values and give you extra help for the holidays.The British Columbia government is increasing tax incentives for both local and international film and TV projects in an effort to attract more major productions to the province. Premier David Eby said the tax credit for international projects made in B.C. will jump from 28 to 36 per cent, and an incentive for Canadian-content productions will increase from 35 to 36 per cent. There's also a special bonus to attract blockbuster productions with budgets of $200 million. Speaking on Thursday at the Martini Town studio, a New-York-themed backlot in Langley, B.C., Eby said tax incentives are the province's "competitive advantage" and increasing them will help the industry that has been battered by the pandemic, labour disruptions and changes to industry practices. "This is a sector that's taken some hits. The decision by major studios to ... reduce some of their budgets on production, the impact of labour disruptions, other jurisdictions competing with British Columbia for these productions with significant subsidies for the industry, means that we need to respond," Eby said, the Manhattan street scene behind him decorated for Christmas. "We need to make sure that we continue to be competitive." Government numbers show the film industry generated $2.7 billion in GDP in 2022 — roughly one per cent of provincial GDP — and $2 billion in 2023, a year affected by strike action and a decrease in global production A government statement says the incentives begin with productions that have principal photography starting Jan. 1, 2025, and projects with costs of greater than $200 million in B.C. will receive a two per cent bonus. Gemma Martini, chair of industry organization Screen BC and CEO of Martini Film Studios, told the news conference that it has been a "tumultuous" year for film and television, which supports tens of thousands of jobs. "It is clear that British Columbia is a well respected and preferred global production partner, but we must be able to compete at the bottom line," she said. "We expect, we know, our government's announcement will put B.C. back in the game to earn our true 'Hollywood north' reputation." Foreign film and TV work makes up an average of 80 per cent of total production spending in B.C., and the government says maintaining strong international relationships is critical for the industry to continue to thrive. The government says it also intends to restore regional and distant-location tax credits that were cut last year for companies with a brick-and-mortar presence outside of Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Whistler and Squamish. Eby first promised to increase the tax credits as part of his election campaign earlier this year. Just days after the new B.C. cabinet was announced in November, a delegation that included Finance Minister Brenda Bailey and Arts and Culture Minister Spencer Chandra Herbert travelled to California to pitch B.C.'s film and TV industry. Chandra Herbert told the news conference that during the trip they met industry representatives who are now looking at B.C. "in a bigger way" because of the new incentives. He said the additional two per cent bonus for productions over $200 million is a way to encourage larger productions to come and stay in B.C. "This is a way of making sure that the workers in this industry, and the companies, know that we're here for them for the long term. You can make these investments long term. You can grow the industry today, tomorrow and into the years ahead," he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2024. Ashley Joannou, The Canadian Press
Panaji: Lt Cdr Dilna K and Lt Cdr Roopa Alagirisamy, the two women undertaking a historic circumnavigation around the Earth, cast off the mooring lines at Australia's Fremantle port on Sunday to a rousing farewell from the Indian diaspora and Indian Navy personnel. The two naval officers will now sail 3,400 nautical miles (6,300 km) in approximately 20 days as they make their way to their second stop, Lyttelton, New Zealand. The Navy said that the two will experience challenging weather conditions, including lower temperatures as they round the southwest tip of Australia. IPL 2025 mega auction IPL Auction 2025: Who got whom IPL 2025 Auction: Updated Full Team Squads During their two-week planned halt at Fremantle, Dilna and Roopa met ministers and MPs of Western Australia. During the interaction, the two women briefed the MPs about the ongoing circumnavigation expedition and their 38-day voyage from Goa to Fremantle, Perth. The Western Australian Parliament felicitated the two officers for undertaking the maritime expedition and for representing India’s progress in women’s empowerment. “Fostering cultural and historical connections between the two countries and recognising their achievements, the crew were honoured as special invitees at the Western Australia Parliament where they interacted with MPs and also attended a session of the Parliament where a statement was made in the house, acknowledging the expedition and their journey thus far,” the Indian Navy said. The duo are sailing aboard the INSV Tarini, a 56ft vessel built in Goa. During the stopover at Fremantle, the Tarini underwent checks of all systems and repairs to defects under the supervision of a shore support team from India and stocked up with provisions for the next leg. The crew was briefed by the team mentor, Cdr Abhilash Tomy (retd) on the passage ahead. The two officers also interacted with the Indian diaspora and visited the Royal Australian Naval Base HMAS Stirling and the Ocean Reef High School, where they shared their journey and experiences with the students. Phase II of the expedition will see INSV Tarini cross Cape Leeuwin, the Great Australian Bight, Tasmania, and the South Island of New Zealand before calling on at Lyttelton. According to naval officials, the INSV Tarini will encounter winds above 20kts, with choppy sea conditions.
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BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — In the early hours Sunday at the United Nations climate talks, countries from around the world reached an agreement on how rich countries can cough up the funds to support poor countries in the face of climate change. It’s a far-from-perfect arrangement, with many parties still unsatisfied but some hopeful that the deal will be a step in the right direction. World Resources Institute president and CEO Ani Dasgupta called it “an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” but added that the poorest and most vulnerable nations are “rightfully disappointed that wealthier countries didn’t put more money on the table when billions of people’s lives are at stake.” The summit was supposed to end on Friday evening but negotiations spiraled on through early Sunday. With countries on opposite ends of a massive chasm, tensions ran high as delegations tried to close the gap in expectations. Here’s how they got there: What was the finance deal agreed at climate talks? Rich countries have agreed to pool together at least $300 billion a year by 2035. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, and that experts said was needed. But some delegations said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future. The text included a call for all parties to work together using “all public and private sources” to get closer to the $1.3 trillion per year goal by 2035. That means also pushing for And it means, hopefully, that companies and private investors will follow suit on channeling cash toward climate action. The agreement is also a critical step toward helping countries on the receiving end create more ambitious targets to limit or cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that are due early next year. It’s part of the plan to keep cutting pollution with new targets every five years, which the world agreed to at the U.N. talks in Paris in 2015. The Paris agreement set the system of regular ratcheting up climate fighting ambition as away to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels. The world is already at 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.3 degrees Fahrenheit) and carbon emissions keep rising. What will the money be spent on? The deal decided in Baku replaces a previous agreement from 15 years ago that charged rich nations $100 billion a year to help the developing world with climate finance. The new number has similar aims: it will go toward the developing world’s long laundry list of to-dos to prepare for a warming world and keep it from getting hotter. That includes paying for the transition to clean energy and away from fossil fuels. Countries need funds to build up the infrastructure needed to deploy technologies like wind and solar power on a large scale. Communities hard-hit by extreme weather also want money to adapt and prepare for events like floods, typhoons and fires. Funds could go toward improving farming practices to make them more resilient to weather extremes, to building houses differently with storms in mind, to helping people move from the hardest-hit areas and to help leaders improve emergency plans and aid in the wake of disasters. The Philippines, for example, has been hammered , bringing to millions of people howling wind, massive storm surges and catastrophic damage to residences, infrastructure and farmland. “Family farmers need to be financed,” said Esther Penunia of the Asian Farmers Association. She described how many have already had to deal with millions of dollars of storm damage, some of which includes trees that won’t again bear fruit for months or years, or animals that die, wiping out a main source of income. “If you think of a rice farmer who depends on his or her one hectare farm, rice land, ducks, chickens, vegetables, and it was inundated, there was nothing to harvest,” she said. Why was it so hard to get a deal? Election results around the world that herald a change in climate leadership, a few key players with motive to stall the talks and a disorganized host country all led to a final crunch that left few happy with a flawed compromise. The ending of COP29 is “reflective of the harder geopolitical terrain the world finds itself in,” said Li Shuo of the Asia Society. He cited Trump’s recent victory in the US — with his promises to pull the country out of the Paris Agreement — as one reason why the relationship between China and the EU will be more consequential for global climate politics moving forward. Developing nations also faced some difficulties agreeing in the final hours, with one Latin American delegation member saying that their group didn’t feel properly consulted when small island states had last-minute meetings to try to break through to a deal. Negotiators from across the developing world took different tacks on the deal until they finally agreed to compromise. Meanwhile, activists ramped up the pressure: many urged negotiators to stay strong and asserted that no deal would be better than a bad deal. But ultimately the desire for a deal won out. Some also pointed to the host country as a reason for the struggle. Mohamed Adow, director of climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said Friday that “this COP presidency is one of the worst in recent memory,” calling it “one of the most poorly led and chaotic COP meetings ever.” The presidency said in a statement, “Every hour of the day, we have pulled people together. Every inch of the way, we have pushed for the highest common denominator. We have faced geopolitical headwinds and made every effort to be an honest broker for all sides.” Shuo retains hope that the opportunities offered by a green economy “make inaction self-defeating” for countries around the world, regardless of their stance on the decision. But it remains to be seen whether the UN talks can deliver more ambition next year. In the meantime, “this COP process needs to recover from Baku,” Shuo said. ___ Associated Press reporters Seth Borenstein and Sibi Arasu contributed to this report. ___ The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at . Melina Walling, The Associated Press
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Stock market today: Wall Street wavers at the start of a holiday-shortened weekCARACAS (Reuters) -Venezuelan authorities said on Thursday that they have released 103 people this week who had been arrested amid anti-government protests following last July's contested presidential election. President Nicolas Maduro was proclaimed the winner of the July 28 vote by the government-aligned electoral authority and supreme court even though both bodies have refused to release ballot-box level voting records to back up the claim. Raucous street protests erupted hours after the initial claim that Maduro had won. Shortly after the election, the opposition uploaded to a website thousands of scanned copies of voting machine receipts their observers obtained that they say prove their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, won a landslide victory. Maduro had said that some 2,000 people were arrested in the post-election protests. Earlier this week, opposition political party Vente Venezuela, said three of its regional leaders had been arrested. The party is led by the South American country's most prominent opposition leader, Maria Corina Machado. Last January, the country's top court ratified a block to her own plans to run for president. The government's citizen security office announced that this week's prisoner release followed a request by Maduro "to review all the cases concerning acts of violence and crimes committed in the framework of the election," according to a statement read on state television. Last month, the Attorney General's Office said 225 detainees were granted "freedom measures." But most of them must appear in court every 30 days, which rights groups say does not constitute full freedom. The protests left 28 people dead and almost 200 injured while some 500 properties were destroyed, including schools and health centers, according to Attorney General Tarek Saab. (Reporting by Vivian Sequera; Writing by Sarah Morland; Editing by David Alire Garcia)Siri Gets a Brain Boost: Apple Integrates ChatGPT into iOS 18.2