Sign up below to get Mission Local’s free newsletter , a daily digest of news you won’t find elsewhere. In The Lab, a performer going at a wall with a pick-axe during a concert might seem symbolic. After all, the Mission gallery and performance space has always supported artists who break down conventions in music and visual arts. But the demolition last September by Mission District sound artist Victoria Shen (aka Evicshen ) was more than a provocation. She was lending a hand to a remodel — an ongoing expansion that figures to transform the The Lab, an essential arts space, on the cusp of its fifth decade. As Mission Local reported last year , The Lab secured a new 12-year lease at its location in the Redstone Building, expanding into currently unused space. (The venue declined to rent that space when it relocated from its original location, at Bush and Divisadero, back in 1995.) When the wall Shen assaulted finally comes down, The Lab will encompass the entirety of the building’s main auditorium, says Andrew Smith, who succeeded Dena Beard as The Lab’s executive director last year. “We’re turning that back room, which was used as storage in recent years, into exhibition space, while inviting artists to play with that wall at the back in preparation for a major floor-plan remodel,” adds Smith. In doing so, they’ll restore the original footprint of the historic building, which was San Francisco’s Labor Temple, and dates to 1914. Further work on the wall will figure into The Lab’s 40th birthday celebration Saturday, Dec. 7, a party featuring food by veteran chef Leif Hedendal, an open bar, and a set by composer, vocalist and electronics artist Pamela Z . It’s something of a farewell performance before she heads off to Germany for much of 2025, as the recipient of a prestigious Berlin Prize Fellowship. No matter what happens across the country, Mission Local remains your source of in-depth San Francisco reporting . Now, more than ever, we're hoping you can support nonprofit, independent journalism in your community. We have $70,000 in matching gifts — double your donation today! Z plans to present a set of her solo works for voice and electronics. “I want to do something that plays with the site itself, and the wall that’s currently being demolished,” says Z, adding that she’ll including pieces that span the duration of her relationship with The Lab. Z has been associated with the space since the late 1980s, when she presented her first full evening performance there. As she’s honed her lapidary practice — sculpting sound in real time by looping her voice and triggering samples via an evolving array of bespoke gear — Z has returned to the The Lab again and again. For several years, she presented an avant revue “where I’d fill the evening with work by people from all different disciplines, segueing one to another,” says Z, who’s also served on The Lab’s board. There was her one-act opera, “Wonder Cabinet,” a collaboration with cellist Matthew Brubeck inspired by the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles “where we transformed the theater with scrims,” she recalls. But some of her most significant work at The Lab was far less publicized. For about a decade, starting in the early ‘90s, a series of grants from the California Arts Council funded a Lab residency for Z. When the venue moved to the Redstone Building, the program became a vital part of the Mission’s creative ecosystem. At first her sound and performance workshops were designed for at-risk youth, “and then low-income women, and then low-income residents of the Mission,” Z says. “A lot of interesting artists took those workshops. Choreographers left feeling they could make sound scores for their own performances, and they’d build these new works.” With about 10 people in each eight-week course, Z introduced Mission denizens to the ins and outs of sound production. Together, they worked in The Lab’s studio, set up by sound artist Ed Osborn, “a little room in the back with a computer station with Pro Tools and a midi keyboard,” she said. “I’d have the group meet once a week in the gallery, and each session I’d cover one thing: found text, timbre, Foley, and also talking about performance itself as an art form. Every week I’d give an assignment to create something, and the second half of the session they’d all present what they’d done.” More than a classroom, The Lab has also served as an incubator and host for events like the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival . Z was involved in creating that showcase, and in recent years it’s taken place at The Lab. “Especially in the last few years, we’ve been having other organizations come in and use the space,” Smith says. “That tends to fly under the radar. The American Indian Cultural District is in the space five or six times a year. We just did a big fashion show production with a trans Latina group .” In many ways, The Lab is a survivor from the city’s freewheeling past, when artists could afford rent with a part-time job and numerous storefront spaces provided environments in which creative endeavors could take shape. With the space’s future assured through at least 2036, Smith sees The Lab as vital foothold for experimental artists in the neighborhood. “A huge part of my decision to expand The Lab is to really lock down the space for public use,” he says. “It has been a really important resource for other Mission residents.” ’40 Years of the Lab (with Pamela Z)’ takes place at 6 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at The Lab, 2948 16th St. Tickets ($17 and up) and more info here . For us at Mission Local, it brought a realization that while we can still be puzzled by this country and city, we can serve it best by covering it as journalists. Your support allowed us to bring you extensive election coverage in 2024 . Now, regardless of the national results, we’ll be following up on all of the promises that the winning candidates made here in San Francisco. Independent, nonprofit outlets like ours rely on your donations to make this happen. It is how we continue to do our job and expand our coverage every year. And now we are in the crazy period of end-of-year fundraising at an equally crazy political time. We have $70,000 in matching funds. More than 80 readers have already donated to our year-end campaign. Join them by giving today to double your donation. Join more than 1,800 other donors who give to Mission Local. Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn MastodonIran among world’s top 4 aircraft refueler builders
Atria Investments Inc Acquires 1,378 Shares of Vericel Co. (NASDAQ:VCEL)LANGHORNE, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec 23, 2024-- Savara Inc. (Nasdaq: SVRA), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare respiratory diseases, today announced the grant of inducement awards to five new employees. On December 20, 2024, the Compensation Committee of Savara's Board of Directors granted the inducement awards to five new employees who recently joined the Company. The inducement awards consist of options to purchase an aggregate of 100,000 shares of the Company’s common stock and restricted stock units (RSUs) covering an aggregate of 100,000 shares of the Company’s common stock. These equity awards were granted under the Savara Inc. 2021 Inducement Equity Incentive Plan pursuant to Rule 5635(c)(4) of the NASDAQ Listing Rules as an inducement material to the employees’ acceptance of employment with the Company. The options have an exercise price of $3.23 per share, the closing trading price of the Company's common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on the grant date. Each option has a 10-year term and vests as to 1/16 th of the number of shares subject to the option on each quarterly anniversary of the employee’s first day of employment, subject to the employee’s continued employment on each such vesting date. The RSUs vest in full on the two-year anniversary of the employee’s first day of employment, subject to the employee’s continued employment on such vesting date. About Savara Savara is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on rare respiratory diseases. Our lead program, MOLBREEVI*, is a recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in Phase 3 development for autoimmune pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (aPAP). MOLBREEVI is delivered via an investigational eFlow ® Nebulizer System (PARI Pharma GmbH). Our management team has significant experience in rare respiratory diseases and pulmonary medicine, identifying unmet needs, and effectively advancing product candidates to approval and commercialization. More information can be found at www.savarapharma.com , X: @SavaraPharma , LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/savara-pharmaceuticals/ ). *MOLBREEVI is the FDA and EMA conditionally accepted trade name for molgramostim inhalation solution. View source version on businesswire.com : https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241223814372/en/ CONTACT: Media and Investor Relations Contact Savara Inc. Temre Johnson, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs ir@savarapharma.com KEYWORD: PENNSYLVANIA UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: BIOTECHNOLOGY FDA HEALTH PHARMACEUTICAL CLINICAL TRIALS SOURCE: Savara Inc. Copyright Business Wire 2024. PUB: 12/23/2024 04:05 PM/DISC: 12/23/2024 04:07 PM http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241223814372/en
Trudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister saysSport | Rob Houwing's Bok ratings: Steaming 'Sous' and 'Tank Engine' nick the glory
By Jon Bitner on November 25, 2024 at 3:18PM PST GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links. Walmart is discounting a bit of everything for Black Friday this year, with big savings on everything from video games and controllers to Lego sets and laptops. Walmart+ members were given early access to all the deals, but now the offers are available to everyone--and while some of the best discounts are already sold out, you’ll still find a wealth of great products listed at the lowest prices of the year. Walmart Black Friday deals at a glance Video Game Deals Nintendo Deals PlayStation Deals Xbox Deals PC Gaming Deals Lego Deals Keep in mind that you no longer need to be a Walmart+ member to cash in on these offers, but consider signing up anyway if you’re a frequent Walmart shopper to gain additional benefits throughout the year. And if one of your favorite deals is sold out, check back in the coming days--Walmart is known to restock hot products frequently. The event ends on December 1, so be sure to cash in while you can. For more savings, be sure to check GameSpot's Black Friday deals hub. A few Nintendo Switch console bundles are on sale at Walmart. These bundles were available at other retailers but sold out, so Walmart is your last chance to grab them. You’ll also find $20 price cuts on both the Switch Pro Controller and Joy-Con (Neon Red/Neon Blue), bringing them to some of their best prices of the year. Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle -- $249 ($ 299 ) Nintendo Switch OLED + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle -- $299 ($ 349 ) Switch Pro Controller -- $49 ($ 70 ) Joy-Con (Neon Red/Neon Blue) -- $59 ($ 80 ) Tons of retailers are discounting Switch games for Black Friday, but Walmart is beating most offers by $5 to $10. So before you pull the trigger on a great deal at Amazon or Best Buy, be sure to check out this long list of Switch price cuts at Walmart. Notable price cuts include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $30 (was $70), Animal Crossing: New Horizons for $30 (was $60), and Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed for $30 (was $60). Animal Crossing: New Horizons -- $30 ($ 60 ) Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed -- $30 ($ 60 ) Hogwarts Legacy -- $30 ($ 60 ) Kirby and the Forgotten Land -- $30 ($ 60 ) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom -- $45 ($ 60 ) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom -- $30 ($ 70 ) Nintendo Switch Sports -- $30 ($ 50 ) Nintendo World Championships -- $25 ($ 30 ) Pikmin 4 -- $30 ($ 60 ) Pokemon Legends Arceus -- $45 ($ 60 ) Sonic X Shadow Generations -- $30 ($ 50 ) Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Mario Maker 2 -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Mario: Odyssey -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble -- $25 ($ 50 ) DualSense controllers are discounted for Black Friday, including the Midnight Black version for $54 (was $75) and Volcanic Red for $59 (was $80). Most other models are also seeing a $20 price cut. And if you’re in the market for a great headset, check out the Pulse Elite Wireless. On sale for $129 (was $150), it provides you with support for PS5, and PC with the included Link adapter, plus 30 hours of battery life and AI-enhanced noise cancelling for impressive audio. Prepare for the winter by stocking up on affordable PS5 games. Everything from Astro Bot to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is on sale, giving you a chance to load up on titles you may have missed over the past few years. While some of these games are also on sale at other retailers, in some cases Walmart has the best prices. Astro Bot -- $50 ($ 70 ) Days Gone -- $31 ($ 40 ) Demon’s Souls -- $37 ($ 70 ) EA Sports College Football 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) EA Sports FC 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth -- $40 ($ 70 ) God of War Ragnarok -- $30 ($ 70 ) Gran Turismo 7 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Helldivers 2 -- $30 ($ 40 ) Horizon Forbidden West -- $30 ($ 40 ) Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition -- $45 ($ 70 ) The Last of Us Part 1 -- $30 ($ 70 ) The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered -- $40 ($ 70 ) Madden NFL 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales -- $20 ($ 50 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition -- $30 ($ 70 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 -- $30 ($ 70 ) NBA 2K25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart -- $37 ($ 70 ) Returnal -- $30 ($ 70 ) Rise of the Ronin -- $30 ($ 60 ) Sackboy: A Big Adventure -- $38 ($ 60 ) Silent Hill 2 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Stellar Blade -- $50 ($ 70 ) Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection -- $31 ($ 50 ) Now is the time to pick up a new Xbox Controller, as just about all colors and patterns are just $45. These typically costs between $60-$70, making Walmart’s Black Friday sale one of the best places to pick up an official Xbox controller. You’ll also find the Elite Series 2 for $141 (was $180) and the Elite Series 2 Core for $107 (was $130). Xbox Wireless Controllers Arctic Camo -- $45 ($ 65 ) Astral Purple -- $45 ($ 65 ) Carbon Black -- $45 ($ 60 ) Daystrike Camo -- $45 ($ 70 ) Deep Pink -- $45 ($ 60 ) Electric Volt -- $45 ($ 65 ) Ghost Cypher -- $45 ($ 65 ) Mineral Camo -- $45 ($ 65 ) Nocturnal Vapor (Green) -- $45 ($ 70 ) Pulse Red -- $45 ($ 65 ) Robot White -- $45 ($ 50 ) Shock Blue -- $45 ($ 65 ) Sky Cypher -- $45 ($ 70 ) Velocity Green -- $45 ($ 60 ) Elite Series 2 Elite Series 2 -- $141 ($ 180 ) Elite Series 2 (Blue) -- $116 ($ 140 ) Elite Series 2 (White) -- $107 ($ 130 ) Three sports games are on sale for $30 each. Consider picking them up for yourself or as a holiday gift, as these are among the best prices of the year. EA Sports College Football -- $30 ($ 70 ) Madden NFL 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) NBA 2K25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Fan of The Office? Then don’t miss out on the fantastic Dunder Mifflin Scranton Model, which includes 15 minifigures and is a faithful replica of the iconic floorplan. Now on sale for just $70 (was $120), it’s an easy recommendation for longtime viewers. There’s also a Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle set that clocks in at over 2,600 pieces--snap together all its bricks to create a massive replica of the school and its grounds. Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet (590 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Ideas: The Office (1,164 pieces) -- $70 ($ 120 ) Lego Harry Potter - The Battle of Hogwarts (730 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade (1,074 pieces) -- $70 ($ 130 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Castle and Grounds (2,660 pieces) -- $136 ($ 170 ) Lego Star Wars - Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle (599 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Amazon is matching Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet (590 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Chamber of Secrets (1,176 pieces) -- $96 ($ 150 ) with coupon Lego Harry Potter - The Battle of Hogwarts (730 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade (1,074 pieces) -- $70 ($ 130 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Castle and Grounds (2,660 pieces) -- $136 ($ 170 ) Lego Star Wars - Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle (599 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Empoleon V Collector’s Tin -- $15 Gallade V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 26 ) Giratina V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 26 ) Rotom V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 33 ) Tyranitar V Collector's Tin -- $15 Charizard ex Super Premium Collection -- $57 ($ 100 ) Scarlet & Violet: Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box -- $36 ($ 50 ) Scarlet & Violet: Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box -- $33 ($ 39 ) $699 ($ 1,200 ) CPU: Intel Core i5-13600KF GPU: GeForce RTX 4060 RAM: 16GB Storage: 1TB SSD $109 ($ 150 ) Size: 27 inches Resolution: 1080p Refresh rate: 180Hz Response time: 1ms $1,199 ($ 1,599 ) CPU: Ryzen 9-7845HX GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 RAM: 16GB Storage: 1TB SSD $880 ($ 1,200 ) Free copy of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle CPU: Ryzen 7 7435HS GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 RAM: 16GB Storage: 512GB SSD $178 ($ 278 ) Size: 55 inches Resolution: 4K Display: LCD Refresh rate: 60Hz $228 ($ 378 ) Size: 65 inches Resolution: 4K Display: LED Refresh rate: 60Hz $129 ($ 249 ) CPU: Intel Processor N4120 RAM: 4GB RAM Storage: 64GB eMMC $89 ($ 159 ) Connection: Bluetooth ANC: Yes Battery life: Up to 40 hours $89 ($ 180 ) Connection: Bluetooth ANC: Yes Battery life: Up to 30 hours $299 ($ 499 ) Dolby Atmos: Yes Bluetooth: Yes Length: 27 inches $699 ($ 899 ) Dolby Atmos: Yes Bluetooth: No Length: 45 inches $89 Dolby Atmos: No Bluetooth: Yes Length: 35 inches $130 ($ 346 ) Slide Hockey Foosball Billiards Shuffleboard Table Tennis Chess Cards Checkers Bowling Backgammon Upvote Leave BlankBy Jon Bitner on November 25, 2024 at 3:18PM PST GameSpot may receive revenue from affiliate and advertising partnerships for sharing this content and from purchases through links. Walmart is discounting a bit of everything for Black Friday this year, with big savings on everything from video games and controllers to Lego sets and laptops. Walmart+ members were given early access to all the deals, but now the offers are available to everyone--and while some of the best discounts are already sold out, you’ll still find a wealth of great products listed at the lowest prices of the year. Walmart Black Friday deals at a glance Video Game Deals Nintendo Deals PlayStation Deals Xbox Deals PC Gaming Deals Lego Deals Keep in mind that you no longer need to be a Walmart+ member to cash in on these offers, but consider signing up anyway if you’re a frequent Walmart shopper to gain additional benefits throughout the year. And if one of your favorite deals is sold out, check back in the coming days--Walmart is known to restock hot products frequently. The event ends on December 1, so be sure to cash in while you can. For more savings, be sure to check GameSpot's Black Friday deals hub. A few Nintendo Switch console bundles are on sale at Walmart. These bundles were available at other retailers but sold out, so Walmart is your last chance to grab them. You’ll also find $20 price cuts on both the Switch Pro Controller and Joy-Con (Neon Red/Neon Blue), bringing them to some of their best prices of the year. Nintendo Switch + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle -- $249 ($ 299 ) Nintendo Switch OLED + Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Bundle -- $299 ($ 349 ) Switch Pro Controller -- $49 ($ 70 ) Joy-Con (Neon Red/Neon Blue) -- $59 ($ 80 ) Tons of retailers are discounting Switch games for Black Friday, but Walmart is beating most offers by $5 to $10. So before you pull the trigger on a great deal at Amazon or Best Buy, be sure to check out this long list of Switch price cuts at Walmart. Notable price cuts include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom for $30 (was $70), Animal Crossing: New Horizons for $30 (was $60), and Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed for $30 (was $60). Animal Crossing: New Horizons -- $30 ($ 60 ) Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed -- $30 ($ 60 ) Hogwarts Legacy -- $30 ($ 60 ) Kirby and the Forgotten Land -- $30 ($ 60 ) The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom -- $45 ($ 60 ) The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom -- $30 ($ 70 ) Nintendo Switch Sports -- $30 ($ 50 ) Nintendo World Championships -- $25 ($ 30 ) Pikmin 4 -- $30 ($ 60 ) Pokemon Legends Arceus -- $45 ($ 60 ) Sonic X Shadow Generations -- $30 ($ 50 ) Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Mario Maker 2 -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Mario: Odyssey -- $30 ($ 60 ) Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble -- $25 ($ 50 ) DualSense controllers are discounted for Black Friday, including the Midnight Black version for $54 (was $75) and Volcanic Red for $59 (was $80). Most other models are also seeing a $20 price cut. And if you’re in the market for a great headset, check out the Pulse Elite Wireless. On sale for $129 (was $150), it provides you with support for PS5, and PC with the included Link adapter, plus 30 hours of battery life and AI-enhanced noise cancelling for impressive audio. Prepare for the winter by stocking up on affordable PS5 games. Everything from Astro Bot to Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is on sale, giving you a chance to load up on titles you may have missed over the past few years. While some of these games are also on sale at other retailers, in some cases Walmart has the best prices. Astro Bot -- $50 ($ 70 ) Days Gone -- $31 ($ 40 ) Demon’s Souls -- $37 ($ 70 ) EA Sports College Football 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) EA Sports FC 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Final Fantasy VII Rebirth -- $40 ($ 70 ) God of War Ragnarok -- $30 ($ 70 ) Gran Turismo 7 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Helldivers 2 -- $30 ($ 40 ) Horizon Forbidden West -- $30 ($ 40 ) Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition -- $45 ($ 70 ) The Last of Us Part 1 -- $30 ($ 70 ) The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered -- $40 ($ 70 ) Madden NFL 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales -- $20 ($ 50 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales Ultimate Edition -- $30 ($ 70 ) Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 -- $30 ($ 70 ) NBA 2K25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart -- $37 ($ 70 ) Returnal -- $30 ($ 70 ) Rise of the Ronin -- $30 ($ 60 ) Sackboy: A Big Adventure -- $38 ($ 60 ) Silent Hill 2 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Stellar Blade -- $50 ($ 70 ) Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection -- $31 ($ 50 ) Now is the time to pick up a new Xbox Controller, as just about all colors and patterns are just $45. These typically costs between $60-$70, making Walmart’s Black Friday sale one of the best places to pick up an official Xbox controller. You’ll also find the Elite Series 2 for $141 (was $180) and the Elite Series 2 Core for $107 (was $130). Xbox Wireless Controllers Arctic Camo -- $45 ($ 65 ) Astral Purple -- $45 ($ 65 ) Carbon Black -- $45 ($ 60 ) Daystrike Camo -- $45 ($ 70 ) Deep Pink -- $45 ($ 60 ) Electric Volt -- $45 ($ 65 ) Ghost Cypher -- $45 ($ 65 ) Mineral Camo -- $45 ($ 65 ) Nocturnal Vapor (Green) -- $45 ($ 70 ) Pulse Red -- $45 ($ 65 ) Robot White -- $45 ($ 50 ) Shock Blue -- $45 ($ 65 ) Sky Cypher -- $45 ($ 70 ) Velocity Green -- $45 ($ 60 ) Elite Series 2 Elite Series 2 -- $141 ($ 180 ) Elite Series 2 (Blue) -- $116 ($ 140 ) Elite Series 2 (White) -- $107 ($ 130 ) Three sports games are on sale for $30 each. Consider picking them up for yourself or as a holiday gift, as these are among the best prices of the year. EA Sports College Football -- $30 ($ 70 ) Madden NFL 25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) NBA 2K25 -- $30 ($ 70 ) Fan of The Office? Then don’t miss out on the fantastic Dunder Mifflin Scranton Model, which includes 15 minifigures and is a faithful replica of the iconic floorplan. Now on sale for just $70 (was $120), it’s an easy recommendation for longtime viewers. There’s also a Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle set that clocks in at over 2,600 pieces--snap together all its bricks to create a massive replica of the school and its grounds. Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet (590 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Ideas: The Office (1,164 pieces) -- $70 ($ 120 ) Lego Harry Potter - The Battle of Hogwarts (730 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade (1,074 pieces) -- $70 ($ 130 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Castle and Grounds (2,660 pieces) -- $136 ($ 170 ) Lego Star Wars - Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle (599 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Amazon is matching Lego Marvel Infinity Gauntlet (590 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Chamber of Secrets (1,176 pieces) -- $96 ($ 150 ) with coupon Lego Harry Potter - The Battle of Hogwarts (730 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Express & Hogsmeade (1,074 pieces) -- $70 ($ 130 ) Lego Harry Potter - Hogwarts Castle and Grounds (2,660 pieces) -- $136 ($ 170 ) Lego Star Wars - Ahsoka Tano's T-6 Jedi Shuttle (599 pieces) -- $45 ($ 80 ) Empoleon V Collector’s Tin -- $15 Gallade V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 26 ) Giratina V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 26 ) Rotom V Collector’s Tin -- $15 ($ 33 ) Tyranitar V Collector's Tin -- $15 Charizard ex Super Premium Collection -- $57 ($ 100 ) Scarlet & Violet: Paldea Evolved Elite Trainer Box -- $36 ($ 50 ) Scarlet & Violet: Shrouded Fable Elite Trainer Box -- $33 ($ 39 ) $699 ($ 1,200 ) CPU: Intel Core i5-13600KF GPU: GeForce RTX 4060 RAM: 16GB Storage: 1TB SSD $109 ($ 150 ) Size: 27 inches Resolution: 1080p Refresh rate: 180Hz Response time: 1ms $1,199 ($ 1,599 ) CPU: Ryzen 9-7845HX GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 RAM: 16GB Storage: 1TB SSD $880 ($ 1,200 ) Free copy of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle CPU: Ryzen 7 7435HS GPU: GeForce RTX 4070 RAM: 16GB Storage: 512GB SSD $178 ($ 278 ) Size: 55 inches Resolution: 4K Display: LCD Refresh rate: 60Hz $228 ($ 378 ) Size: 65 inches Resolution: 4K Display: LED Refresh rate: 60Hz $129 ($ 249 ) CPU: Intel Processor N4120 RAM: 4GB RAM Storage: 64GB eMMC $89 ($ 159 ) Connection: Bluetooth ANC: Yes Battery life: Up to 40 hours $89 ($ 180 ) Connection: Bluetooth ANC: Yes Battery life: Up to 30 hours $299 ($ 499 ) Dolby Atmos: Yes Bluetooth: Yes Length: 27 inches $699 ($ 899 ) Dolby Atmos: Yes Bluetooth: No Length: 45 inches $89 Dolby Atmos: No Bluetooth: Yes Length: 35 inches $130 ($ 346 ) Slide Hockey Foosball Billiards Shuffleboard Table Tennis Chess Cards Checkers Bowling Backgammon Upvote Leave Blank
Tevogen Bio CEO Reflects on Public Support, Reaffirms Preserving Shareholder Value Remains His ...By RANDALL CHASE, Associated Press DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price.Churchill Resources Closing of Second and Final Tranche of $2M Private Placement
By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Donald Trump that Americans would also suffer if the president-elect follows through on a plan to impose sweeping tariffs on Canadian products , a Canadian minister who attended their recent dinner said Monday. Trump threatened to impose tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico if they don’t stop what he called the flow of drugs and migrants across their borders with the United States. He said on social media last week that he would impose a 25% tax on all products entering the U.S. from Canada and Mexico as one of his first executive orders. Canadian Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, whose responsibilities include border security, attended a dinner with Trump and Trudeau at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on Friday. Trudeau requested the meeting in a bid to avoid the tariffs by convincing Trump that the northern border is nothing like the U.S. southern border with Mexico . “The prime minister of course spoke about the importance of protecting the Canadian economy and Canadian workers from tariffs, but we also discussed with our American friends the negative impact that those tariffs could have on their economy, on affordability in the United States as well,” LeBlanc said in Parliament. If Trump makes good on his threat to slap 25% tariffs on everything imported from Mexico and Canada, the price increases that could follow will collide with his campaign promise to give American families a break from inflation. Economists say companies would have little choice but to pass along the added costs, dramatically raising prices for food, clothing, automobiles, alcohol and other goods. The Produce Distributors Association, a Washington trade group, said last week that tariffs will raise prices for fresh fruit and vegetables and hurt U.S. farmers when the countries retaliate. Canada is already examining possible retaliatory tariffs on certain items from the U.S. should Trump follow through on the threat. After his dinner with Trump, Trudeau returned home without assurances the president-elect will back away from threatened tariffs on all products from the major American trading partner. Trump called the talks “productive” but signaled no retreat from a pledge that Canada says unfairly lumps it in with Mexico over the flow of drugs and migrants into the United States. “The idea that we came back empty handed is completely false,” LeBlanc said. “We had a very productive discussion with Mr. Trump and his future Cabinet secretaries. ... The commitment from Mr. Trump to continue to work with us was far from empty handed.” Joining Trump and Trudeau at dinner were Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee for commerce secretary, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s pick to lead the Interior Department, and Mike Waltz, Trump’s choice to be his national security adviser. Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., Kirsten Hillman, told The Associated Press on Sunday that “the message that our border is so vastly different than the Mexican border was really understood.” Hillman, who sat at an adjacent table to Trudeau and Trump, said Canada is not the problem when it comes to drugs and migrants. On Monday, Mexico’s president rejected those comments. “Mexico must be respected, especially by its trading partners,” President Claudia Sheinbaum said. She said Canada had its own problems with fentanyl consumption and “could only wish they had the cultural riches Mexico has.” Flows of migrants and seizures of drugs at the two countries’ border are vastly different. U.S. customs agents seized 43 pounds of fentanyl at the Canadian border during the last fiscal year, compared with 21,100 pounds at the Mexican border. Most of the fentanyl reaching the U.S. — where it causes about 70,000 overdose deaths annually — is made by Mexican drug cartels using precursor chemicals smuggled from Asia. On immigration, the U.S. Border Patrol reported 1.53 million encounters with migrants at the southwest border with Mexico between October 2023 and September 2024. That compares to 23,721 encounters at the Canadian border during that time. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports are from Canada, and 85% of U.S. electricity imports as well. Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for and investing for national security.Pentagon, AFP on Task Force Ayungin: US troops limited to supporting role
The Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party, fresh off a contested victory in parliamentary elections last month that ignited calls for fresh polls and pro-EU demonstrations in Tbilisi, is preparing to hold its first parliamentary session on November 25. In comments to RFE/RL, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that foreign diplomats would not be invited to attend the opening session, saying it “should only be celebrated by the Georgian people." EU and other Western officials have expressed serious doubts about the October 26 elections in which Georgian Dream officially won 53.9 percent of the vote. Opposition leaders this week called on foreign diplomats not to legitimize the new parliament by attending the first session of parliament. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has refused to recognize the result validated by the country’s Central Election Committee (CEC), and protests demanding new elections continue to be held in the country’s capital. Protesters have alleged that there was widespread fraud during the campaign and vote, and that Russia heavily influenced the outcome favoring Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012. In recent days, Georgian police have shut down the demonstrations, including through the use of violence on November 19. Video footage by RFE/RL correspondents in Tbilisi showed police dragging people to the ground, including women, and beating them before taking them away. The same day, Zurabishvili filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court "requesting annulment of the election results as unconstitutional.” The first item on the agenda for the opening session, which will be attended by the head of the CEC, will be recognizing the authority of all 150 parliament members. Georgia has been a candidate for EU membership since last year, but a "foreign influence" law and anti-LGBT measures enacted under Georgian Dream’s leadership have stalled that effort. The United States in July announced that it would pause more than $95 million in assistance to the Georgian government, warning it that it was backsliding on democracy. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering tapping Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, to be a special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to four sources familiar with the transition plans. Grenell, who served as Trump's ambassador to Germany, as special envoy to Serbia-Kosovo talks, and was acting director of national intelligence during Trump's 2017-2021 term, would play a key role in Trump's efforts to halt the war if he is ultimately selected for the post. While there is currently no special envoy dedicated solely to resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump is considering creating the role, according to the four sources. Grenell has advocated for the creation of "autonomous zones" as a means of settling the conflict. He also suggested he would not be in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the immediate future. EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola supports the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine in its defense against Russia's full-scale invasion and said Germany should quickly deliver its long-range Taurus system to the embattled country. Metsola, in an interview published on November 23 by the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers, said "yes," when asked whether countries providing long-range missiles to Ukraine should allow it to use them against targets in Russia -- and whether Germany should deliver its Taurus weapons system to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, has been staunchly opposed to sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine. His coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens, however, are in favor of sending Kyiv the missiles. Austria has dropped its long-standing veto to Bulgaria and Romania joining the passport free Schengen zone, opening the door to their accession next year. The breakthrough development was announced on November 22 by the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council, which hosted a meeting in Budapest with the interior ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria. The EU will meet with the two candidate countries to finalize a joint security package at a meeting on December 11-12. The two countries could become Schengen members in January. “Bulgaria and Romania belong fully to the Schengen area. I welcome the positive outcome of informal discussions in Budapest today.” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in a tweet following the announcement. The addition of Bulgaria and Romania will expand the Schengen zone to 28 states, including 24 EU members. Ireland and Cyprus will remain the only EU members not part of the Schengen Area. Bulgarians and Romanians currently are not permitted to travel freely into other Schengen member states over land borders. Early this year, they received the right to travel freely by air and sea in the first concession by Vienna. After the meeting in Budapest, Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter told media that the agreement to be signed next month includes the establishment of a special contingent of at least 100 border police officers on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Hungary will contribute to the full deployment of the officers and provide the necessary technical equipment to ensure effective protection of the border, he said. Pinter expressed confidence that the issue could be resolved by December 31. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said a January accession date is a realistic goal. Yekaterina Neroznikova, a journalist and member of the Marem human rights group, is facing administrative charges in Russia for her alleged involvement with an "undesirable organization." The charges stem from Neroznikova's participation in an interview with RFE/RL earlier this year, where she discussed the high-profile abduction of Seda Suleimanova, a native of Chechnya. The administrative protocol was filed with the Zhukovsky City Court in Moscow Oblast on November 15, with a hearing scheduled for November 26. Neroznikova, who left Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, disclosed the development to the OVD-Info human rights group, a prominent watchdog monitoring political persecution in Russia. The case against Neroznikova is linked to her April 2024 appearance on RFE/RL’s program Human Rights Are A Right. During the program, she discussed the abduction of Suleimanova, who was forcibly taken from St. Petersburg in August 2023 by local police and Chechen operatives. Suleimanova, who fled Chechnya in 2022 because of pressure being put on her to agree to a forced marriage, has been missing since September last year. The charges against Neroznikova are seen as part of Russia’s broader crackdown on dissent and press freedom. Suleimanova's case has prompted global protests and solidarity campaigns highlighting ongoing human rights concerns in Chechnya and Russia in general. According to Neroznikova, a man identifying himself as an officer of the Interior Ministry contacted her relatives last week before reaching out to her directly. He informed her of the administrative charges, citing her commentary on RFE/RL as the reason. RFE/RL's Russian Service and its multiple projects in the Russian language were designated as "undesirable organizations" in Russia in February 2024, making any association with them punishable under Russian law. Participation in the activities of an “undesirable organization” in Russia can result in fines of up to 15,000 rubles for individuals. Repeat offenses within a year can escalate to criminal charges, carrying penalties of up to four years in prison. Suleimanova's case has drawn international attention. In 2022, she fled her family in Chechnya to avoid an arranged marriage and persistent conflicts. In August 2023, she was abducted in St. Petersburg by individuals including local police and plainclothes Chechen security officers. She was taken to her family in Chechnya, and no information about her whereabouts has been available since September 2023. An investigation into Suleimanova’s disappearance was launched in March 2024 following thousands of public appeals. Despite the family's claims that she left home again in February, observers remain skeptical, citing conflicting statements made by her relatives. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country's new intermediate-range ballistic missile, a nuclear-capable weapon, will continue to be tested, including in combat conditions, as Moscow struck several Ukrainian regions with other, less powerful weapons. "We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are created for Russia," Putin said on November 22 at a meeting with Defense Ministry officials and military-industrial complex officials. The Kremlin leader also called for serial production of the large missile to begin. Russia launched the so-called Oreshnik ballistic missile against Ukraine on November 21 in a strike targeting the city of Dnipro. Putin said at the time it was part of Moscow's response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with U.S.-supplied ATACMS and British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. The use of the Oreshnik "is first and foremost a messaging and saber rattling kind of weapon. This is the sort of delivery system that's not cheap. It's not a battlefield sort of weapon," Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told RFE/RL. Putin added on November 22 that the Oreshnik is new and not an upgrade of previous Soviet-designed weaponry. The United States said the new missile is “experimental” and based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Ukraine initially accused Russia of having used an ICBM in the Dnipro attack. An ICBM has never been used in a war. Strategic Weapons Russia has been striking Ukraine with Iskanders, ground-launched, short-range ballistic missiles, and Kinzhals, air-launched, intermediate-range ballistic missiles, as well as various cruise missiles. Russia probably only has several units of the Oreshnik in stock, a U.S. official told media following the November 21 strike. Ukraine's military intelligence put the figure at up to 10 units. If Russia were to move forward with serial production of the Oreshnik, it would be for its nuclear force posture and not for use in a conventional war like the one with Ukraine, Karako said. "This is not an alternative to a cruise missile. It's probably designed for strategic weapons," he said. Zelenskiy's Response In his November 21 address to the nation announcing the use of the Oreshnik, Putin said that the missile traveled at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometers per second, claiming that "there are currently no ways of counteracting this weapon." Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on November 22 that Ukraine was working on developing new types of air defenses to counter "new risks," a reference to missiles like the Oreshnik. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said testing a new weapon for the purposes of terror in another country was an "international crime" and called for a worldwide "serious response" to keep Russia from expanding the war. "When someone starts using other countries not only for terror, but also for testing their new missiles through acts of terror, then this is clearly an international crime." A lack of air defenses has been one of Ukraine's major weak spots in the 33-month war with Ukraine. Zelenskiy has called on the West to deliver more air defense systems since the first days of the invasion. He had also called on the West to ease restrictions preventing Ukraine from striking inside Russia with powerful long-range weapons. Zelenskiy said the deep strikes were necessary to target airfields critical for Russia's daily aerial attacks. The United States and the United Kingdom reportedly lifted the restrictions on November 17 with Ukraine using their long-range weapons -- ATACMS and Storm Shadow respectively -- to hit targets in Russia's regions of Belgorod and Kursk. Putin launched the Oreshnik into Ukraine to warn the West against arming Ukraine. Parliament Session Canceled Russia did not use the Oreshnik to strike Ukraine during another deadly air attack on November 22. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian strikes on Sumy, Artem Kobzar, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city, reported in a video statement on Telegram. The Ukrainian Air Force said Russian drone attacks were under way in four regions -- Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. In the capital, which has been on edge for several days amid intense Russian attacks on Ukraine, lawmakers were advised to avoid the government district on November 22 and parliament canceled a scheduled session due to warnings of a potential missile strike. "We were informed about the risk of a missile strike on the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv in the coming days. Putin has significantly raised the stakes . Tomorrow's parliamentary session is canceled," lawmaker Taras Batenko said. Oleksiy Honcharenko, another lawmaker, said on Telegram that the next session was now planned for December, although parliament leaders have not officially commented on the warnings. Zelenskiy's office assured the public that the presidential administration would continue operating "as usual" on November 22. The Russian Supreme Court has declared the international organization Post-Russia Free Nations Forum a terrorist group, the latest move in the Kremlin's clampdown on any sign of dissent. The organization, founded in Poland in 2022, has been accused of promoting separatism and aiming to disband the Russian Federation into independent states under foreign influence. Russia is a multiethnic state comprised of more than 80 regions, many of which have large indigenous populations, such as Chechnya and Tatarstan. Since coming to power in 1999, Russian President Vladimir Putin has centralized authority, curtailing the autonomy that some ethnic regions enjoyed. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its attempt to wipe out Ukrainian identity has shone a bright light on the Kremlin's historical mistreatment of its own indigenous populations and triggered a "decolonization" movement that seeks to give more prominence to ethnic groups within Russian historical and cultural studies. The case against the Post-Russia Free Nations Forum was launched in late October by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which cited its activities as a threat to Russia’s territorial integrity and national security. In its statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office alleged that the forum operates through 172 regional and national entities, including the Baltic Republican Party, the Ingria Movement, the Congress of Peoples of the North Caucasus, the Free Yakutia Foundation, and the Far Eastern Confederation. The office claims these groups are directed by exiled leaders of separatist movements. “These leaders aim to divide the Russian Federation into independent states that would fall under the influence of hostile foreign countries,” the Prosecutor-General’s Office stated on its official website. The Post-Russia Free Nations Forum is registered in Poland and describes itself as a civic movement advocating for greater regional autonomy within Russia, with some members supporting full independence for regions. On its website and social media platforms, the organization also uses variations of its name, such as the Post-Russia Free States Forum. Ukrainian businessman Oleh Mahaletskiy positions himself as one of the founders of the group and is believed to be a major sponsor. The group’s activities have included discussions on decentralization and independence, with notable speakers such as the noted Tatar activist Nafis Kashapov, Bashkir activist Ruslan Gabbasov, Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomaryov, U.S. political analyst Janusz Bugajski, and others. Following the November 22 terrorist designation by the Supreme Court, all activities of the Post-Russia Free Nations Forum are now banned in Russia. Membership or association with the group is subject to criminal prosecution under Russian anti-terrorism laws. Critics of the ruling argue that the designation reflects a broader crackdown on dissent and regional autonomy movements in Russia. They note that the Forum primarily operates abroad and online, raising questions about the ruling’s effectiveness outside Russian borders. The Forum has not yet responded to the court’s decision. Observers suggest that this ruling may escalate tensions between Russia and countries hosting members of the organization, particularly Poland, where it is registered. The authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has threatened to shut down the Internet in the event of mass protests during or after the upcoming presidential election, after the previous vote in 2020 erupted in unprecedented unrest amid opposition allegations it was rigged. Speaking to students at Minsk State Linguistic University on November 22, Lukashenka defended past Internet restrictions and warned of future measures to throttle dissent. "If this happens again, we will shut it down entirely. Do you think I will sit idly and pray you don't send a message when the fate of the country is at stake?" state news agency BelTA quoted him as saying. Lukashenka admitted that Internet disruptions during the 2020 protests were conducted with his approval, citing the need to "protect the country." Following the August 9, 2020, election, which many Western governments have said was not free and fair, Internet access across Belarus was disrupted for several days and intermittently blocked. The disputed election that extended Lukashenka's decades of rule -- he has held power since 1994 -- for another term was widely condemned as fraudulent by the United States, the European Union, and other international actors. The protests, which demanded Lukashenka’s resignation, were met with mass arrests, alleged torture, and violent crackdowns that left several people dead. Many opposition leaders remain imprisoned or in exile, while Lukashenka refuses dialogue with his critics. The next presidential election in Belarus is scheduled for January 26. Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, was honored with the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a ceremony held in New York on November 21. Kurmasheva, who was recently released from detention in Russia after spending 288 days in custody, thanked the CPJ for its efforts toward gaining her freedom. "Journalism is not a crime," she said , noting that more than 20 journalists are currently imprisoned in Russia. Kurmasheva added that she was dedicating the award to her colleagues still imprisoned , including RFE/RL journalists Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk in Belarus, Vladislav Yesypenko in Crimea, and Farid Mehralizada in Azerbaijan. "My colleagues are not just statistics; like me they are real human beings with families who miss and love them. There are dozens of other journalists in Russian prisons. They should be released at once," Kurmasheva stressed . Other recipients of the award this year included Palestinian journalist Shorouq al-Aila, Guatemalan journalist Kimi de Leon, and Nigerien investigative journalist Samira Sabou, all recognized for their courage in the face of persecution. Detained by authorities in June 2023 as she was visiting relatives in the central Russian city of Kazan, Kurmasheva was initially charged with not declaring her U.S. passport. She was released but barred from leaving the country. That October, however, she was arrested, jailed, and charged with being an undeclared "foreign agent" -- under a draconian law targeting journalists, civil society activists, and others. She was later hit with an additional charge: distributing what the government claims is false information about the Russian military, a charge stemming from her work editing a book about Russians opposed to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. RFE/RL, as well as the U.S. government, called the charges absurd. The prisoner exchange that came to fruition on August 1 included 24 people in all -- including Kurmasheva, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich, and Russian political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza -- in a complex, seven-country deal. Religious tensions are on the rise in northwestern Pakistan following a deadly attack on a police-escorted convoy of Shi'ite Muslims that threatened to reignite sectarian violence in a strife-plagued region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In the aftermath of the attack on the 200-vehicle convoy traveling from Peshawar to Parachinar, the capital city of the Kurram district, authorities on November 22 imposed a curfew and suspended mobile service in the remote mountainous district. RFE/RL correspondents on the ground reported on November 22 that heavily armed people set fire to a military checkpoint in the area overnight. In Parachinar, dozens of angry people carrying automatic weapons were gathering, amid reports that several other facilities of the Pakistani Army and the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were attacked and destroyed, with RFE/RL correspondents reporting sounds of constant heavy gunfire. Jamshed Shirazi, a social activist in Parachinar, told RFE/RL that several government installations had been damaged by the angry protesters. "People are expressing their anger by attacking the government offices," Shirazi said. But Jalal Hussain Bangash, a local Shi'ite leader, voiced dismay at the violence during a Friday Prayer sermon on November 22 and said that Shi'a had nothing to do with the ensuing violence, RFE/RL correspondents on the ground report . Hamid Hussain, a lawmaker from Kurram in the national parliament, was adamant that the violence was the work of provocateurs. "We are helpless. Neither Shi'a nor Sunnis are involved in this. This is some other invisible forces who do not want to see peace in the area," Hussain told RFE/RL. At least 48 people, including several women and children, were killed and more than 40 wounded when gunmen opened fire on November 21 on the convoy of vehicles in the Kurram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. Local leaders told RFE/RL that most of those killed were Shi'a, but at least four Sunnis were also among the dead. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of deadly confrontations in Kurram, long known as a hotspot of Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian conflict. Local tribal leader Malik Dildar Hussain told RFE/RL that there were about 700 people in the convoy. Tensions in Kurram began to heat up in the past several months, where clashes again erupted between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim tribes in the area, which was formerly semiautonomous. On October 12, 17 people were killed in an attack on a convoy, and there have been a handful of deadly attacks since then. Sunnis and Shi'a live together in Kurram and have clashed violently over land, forests, and other property as well as religion over the years, despite government and law enforcement efforts to build peace. Minority Shi'ite Muslims have long suffered discrimination and violence in Sunni-majority Pakistan. Moscow launched another deadly attack on Ukraine on November 22, a day after firing what it said was a new intermediate-range missile that the Kremlin boasted was a " warning " for the West, after Kyiv reportedly obtained permission from President Joe Biden to strike into Russia with U.S. long-range missiles. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian strikes on Sumy, Artem Kobzar, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city, reported in a video statement on Telegram. Ukraine's air force said Russian drone attacks were under way in four regions -- Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. In the capital, which has been on edge for several days amid intense Russian attacks on Ukraine, lawmakers were advised to avoid the government district on November 22 and parliament canceled a scheduled session due to warnings of a potential missile strike. "We were informed about the risk of a missile strike on the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv in the coming days. Putin has significantly raised the stakes . Tomorrow's parliamentary session is canceled," lawmaker Taras Batenko said, while lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Telegram that the next session was now planned for December, although parliament leaders have not officially commented on the warnings. The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy assured the public that it would continue operating "as usual" on November 22. On November 20, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine warned of a significant Russian air attack, prompting the temporary closure of its operations. The embassies of Spain, Italy, and Greece also suspended services for the day. On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the "successful combat testing" of a new Oreshnik (Hazel Tree) intermediate-range ballistic missile amid the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin claimed the missile was used in a strike on Ukraine's eastern city of Dnipro, asserting it was a response to NATO’s "aggressive actions" and Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory. On November 22, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that the test was a message to the West that Moscow will respond harshly to any "reckless" Western moves in support of Ukraine. "The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side," Peskov told reporters. "The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns are not taken into account have been quite clearly outlined," he said. Ukraine's military intelligence said on November 22 that Russia may have up to 10 units of the new missile. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited his Israeli counterpart to visit Hungary, defying an arrest warrant for issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Benjamin Netanyahu that other European states say they will honor. Orban, speaking during his regular weekly interview with Hungarian state radio, said on November 22 that the ICC's decision a day earlier to issue the warrant accusing Netanyahu of "crimes against humanity and war crimes" committed during the war in Gaza was "outrageously brazen" and "cynical." The ICC issued similar arrest warrants for former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas military leader who Israel claims to have killed but whose death the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group has not officially acknowledged. The ICC said Netanyahu and Gallant were suspected of using "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid while targeting civilians in Israel's war in Gaza -- charges Israeli officials deny. Orban said the ICC move against Netanyahu "intervenes in an ongoing conflict...dressed up as a legal decision, but in fact for political purposes." "Later today, I will invite the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary, where I will guarantee him, if he comes, that the judgment of the ICC will have no effect in Hungary, and that we will not follow its terms," he added. "There is no choice here, we have to defy this decision," Orban said. Shortly after the ICC decision was announced, the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said ICC decisions "are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU member states." However, the EU's most powerful members, Germany and France, on November 22 reacted with restraint to the ICC warrants. A spokesman said the German government will refrain from any moves until a visit to Germany by Netanyahu is planned. "I find it hard to imagine that we would make arrests on this basis," Steffen Hebestreit said on November 22, adding that legal questions had to be clarified about the warrant. In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine only said that France acknowledged the ICC's move and voiced its support for the ICC's independence. "France takes note of this decision. True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the court, in accordance with the Rome Statute," Lemoine said. Hungary, a NATO and European Union member state, has signed and ratified the 1999 document. However, it has not published the statute's associated convention and therefore argues that it is not bound to comply with ICC decisions. Netanyahu on November 22 thanked Orban for his show of "moral clarity." "Faced with the shameful weakness of those who stood by the outrageous decision against the right of the State of Israel to defend itself, Hungary" is "standing by the side of justice and truth," Netanyahu said in a statement. A right-wing nationalist in power since 2010, Orban has maintained close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has voiced opposition to the EU's sanctions imposed on Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orban has previously said that Hungary would not arrest Putin either, despite the ICC arrest warrant issued on the Russian leader's name for war crimes for his role in deporting Ukrainian children. Furthermore, he flew to Moscow in July immediately after Hungary took over the EU's rotating six-month presidency to meet with Putin, in defiance of the fellow members of the bloc. Soltan Achilova, a veteran journalist and former RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan, was forcibly hospitalized in Ashgabat on November 20 in what appears to be a move by the government to prevent her from flying to Geneva to receive an international award. According to the Chronicle of Turkmenistan website, four men in medical gowns arrived at the 75-year-old's apartment early that morning, claiming she was suspected of carrying an infectious disease and needed an "urgent" examination. Achilova, who showed no signs of illness, was forcibly taken to the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases in Ashgabat's Choganly district. Her family was not allowed to accompany her and her apartment keys were confiscated. One family member said one of the men told Achilova, "Why do you need keys in the afterlife?" Doctors have not disclosed when she will be released. Turkmenistan is consistently ranked by media watchdogs, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), among the worst countries in the world for press freedom. Independent media are nonexistent in the authoritarian Central Asian state, where journalism "amounts only to praise for the regime," according to RSF. The government continues a relentless clampdown on dissent -- with critics being harassed, beaten, tortured, jailed, and even killed. Many others have been forced abroad into exile. Human rights groups, including the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the International Partnership for Human Rights, immediately condemned Achilova's forced detention, calling it a stark escalation in Turkmenistan's crackdown on free speech. They demanded her immediate release and an end to the persecution of journalists. Achilova, the only journalist in Turkmenistan who openly criticizes the authoritarian government, has faced repeated harassment, threats, and attacks. In November 2023, border guards at the Ashgabat airport destroyed her passport to prevent her from traveling to Switzerland, where she was scheduled to attend the Martin Ennals Award human rights ceremony. Achilova has faced verbal threats and physical attacks, which the journalist and her supporters describe as government retaliation for her work. Many of her relatives have also been threatened. Ashgabat doesn't tolerate any dissent, and the government has stifled independent media, forced opposition activists into exile, and blocked access to all major social media and messaging apps to virtually cut its citizens off from the rest of the world. The Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Italy, has canceled appearances by opera singer Ildar Abdrazakov over his support for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pina Picierno, a vice president in the European Parliament, announced the cancellation on the social network X on November 21, emphasizing that Abdrazakov's ties to the Kremlin made him unfit for a leading cultural institution in Europe. She had led a campaign to keep Abdrazakov from performing in productions of Verdi’s Don Carlos and Attila operas. The Anti-Corruption Foundation of Aleksei Navalny had previously named Abdrazakov, who comes from the Bashkortostan region, as a regime supporter, citing his performances at events tied to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and a lucrative appearance on Red Square in 2022. This marks the latest in a series of international cancellations for Abdrazakov, whose scheduled performances in the United States and Germany were also recently cancelled. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Idel.Realities, click here . Iran has vowed to respond to a resolution adopted by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog that criticizes the Islamic republic for what it says is poor cooperation by installing a number of "new and advanced" centrifuges. The resolution, which comes shortly after the return of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Rafael Grossi from a trip to Iran , reportedly says it is "essential and urgent" for Tehran to "act to fulfill its legal obligations." A joint statement by Iran's Foreign Ministry and Atomic Energy Organization said on November 22 that the country's nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, "issued an order to take effective measures, including launching a significant series of new and advanced centrifuges of various types." The Iranian announcement came after the IAEA's board on November 21 issued a second resolution condemning Tehran's cooperation with the agency after a similar warning in June. Some analysts say the resolution may be a step toward making a political decision to trigger a "snapback" of UN Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against Iran. The "snapback" mechanism is outlined in UNSC Resolution 2231, which enshrined a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers. However, the option to reimpose the sanctions expires in October 2025. The IAEA resolution, put forward by France, Germany, and Britain and supported by the United States, comes at a critical time as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to return at the White House in January. Trump during his first term embarked on a "maximum pressure" campaign of intensified sanctions on Iran and unilaterally withdrew the United States in 2018 from a landmark 2015 agreement that lifted some sanctions on Iran in exchange of curbs to its nuclear program, which the West suspects is aimed at obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran claims its nuclear program is peaceful. The resolution passed on November 21 also urged Iran to cooperate with an investigation launched after uranium particles were found at two sites that Iranian authorities had not declared as nuclear locations. Nineteen of the 35 members of the IAEA board voted in favor of the resolution. Russia, China, and Burkina Faso opposed it, 12 members abstained, while one did not vote, diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity told the AP. It also calls on the IAEA to come up with a "comprehensive report" on Iran's nuclear activities by spring. During Grossi's visit, Iran agreed with an IAEA demand to limit its stock of uranium enriched at 60 percent purity, which is still under the 90 percent threshold needed for a nuclear weapon, but it is much higher than the 3.67 percent limit it agreed to in the 2015 deal. However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, who was Tehran's chief negotiator for the 2015 agreement, warned that Iran would not negotiate "under pressure." Tehran has responded to previous similar resolutions by moves such as removing IAEA cameras and monitoring equipment from several nuclear sites, and increasing uranium enrichment to 60 percent purity at a second site, the Fordow plant. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian strikes on Sumy early on November 22, Artem Kobzar, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city, reported in a video statement on Telegram. "Several powerful explosions were heard in Sumy," he said in the video, adding that rescue teams, police, and ambulances were working at the site of the explosions. Kobzar urged residents to take shelter, saying that air defenses were still engaging incoming drones in the morning. Ukraine's air force said Russian drone attacks were under way in four regions -- Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, click here . A senior North Korean general has been wounded in Russia’s Kursk region, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing Western officials. More than 10,000 North Korean troops are supporting Russian forces in Kursk. Russian President Vladimir Putin is hoping to recover the swath of the Kursk region that Ukraine seized in August before President Donald Trump takes office early next year. The United States this week gave Ukraine the green light to use its long-range ATACMS missiles to strike Russian assets in Kursk and said North Korean troops would be fair game. It is unclear how the North Korean general was wounded, the WSJ reported . The United States has imposed sanctions on Gazprombank, Russia’s third-largest lender, and dozens of other financial institutions as President Joe Biden seeks to further curtail the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war in Ukraine before he leaves office in two months. Gazprombank, which plays an important role in facilitating Russian energy exports, was the only remaining large Russian lender not under U.S. sanctions. Washington and Brussels had avoided sanctioning Gazprombank amid concern over possible energy export interruptions. Along with Gazprombank, the United States also announced sanctions on more than 50 other Russian banks conducting international operations, more than 40 Russian securities registrars and 15 Russian finance officials. The United States also warned financial institutions against joining Russia’s version of the international messaging system for banks known as SWIFT. Russia is seeking to attract international banks to its messaging platform to get around U.S. financial sanctions. “Today’s action reaffirms the U.S. commitment to curtail Russia’s ability to use the international financial system to conduct its war against Ukraine and disrupts Russia’s attempts to make cross-border payments for dual-use goods and military materiel,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a November 21 statement. Ukraine backers had been calling on the Biden administration for months to tighten sanctions on Russia’s banking sector, saying the Kremlin was finding ways around existing sanctions to pay for technology imports and other dual-use items. In addition to facilitating energy payments, Gazprombank had been acting as a conduit for the purchase of military goods. The Kremlin also uses Gazprombank to pay Russian soldiers and compensate families for war deaths. “I am grateful to @POTUS and his administration for today’s strong package of financial and banking sanctions targeting Russia’s economy and war chest,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in a tweet . Eddie Fishman, a former State Department official and sanctions expert, called the latest announcement a “strong step” toward closing loopholes around Russia’s energy sector, which generates about half of federal budget revenues. Biden will leave office on January 20 to make way for President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to end the war in Ukraine by getting Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table, something that experts say will be harder done than said. The financial sanctions come at a critical time for Russia’s economy as Putin’s record spending on the war effort drives up inflation and interest rates. The Russian Central Bank last month raised interest rates to 21 percent, the highest in decades, and could continue to ratchet them up with no end in sight to the war. Russian President Vladimir Putin said his military fired a new intermediate-range missile into Ukraine following accusations by Kyiv that it was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a November 21 video statement to the nation, Putin said the use of the new weapon was a response to the United States and the United Kingdom giving permission to Kyiv to fire their long-range missiles into Russia. "In combat conditions, one of the newest Russian medium-range missile systems was tested," Putin said, adding that it was a hypersonic, ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Earlier in the day, Kyiv accused Russia of striking Ukraine with what it said appeared to be an ICBM. The new weapon was part of a larger missile attack on Dnipropetrovsk, home to important military-industrial plants. ICBMs, which are designed to deliver long-distance nuclear strikes, have never been used in war before. "On the morning of November 21, 2024...Russian troops attacked the city of Dnipro (facilities and critical infrastructure) with missiles of various types. In particular, an intercontinental ballistic missile was launched from the Astrakhan region of the Russian Federation," the Ukrainian Air Force said in its statement on Telegram. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram later that the new Russian weapon had "all characteristics -- speed, altitude -- [of an] intercontinental ballistic missile." Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said Russia struck Ukraine with an "experimental" intermediate-range ballistic missile that was based on its RS-26 Rubezh ICBM. She said Russia had informed the United States it would be launching the experimental missile shortly beforehand through "nuclear risk reduction channels." She said the new weapon had a smaller warhead that some other missiles Russia has launched into Ukraine. A U.S. official who asked not to be identified told media that Putin was seeking to intimidate Ukraine but added that Moscow only had a few of the "experimental" missiles. The Russian attack comes just days after reports that Ukraine used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles and U.S.-made ATACMS systems to strike military targets deeper inside Russia following the long-sought approval by President Joe Biden. The RS-26 Rubezh is a solid-fueled, road-mobile ICBM currently in development that has been tested with heavier payloads at intermediate ranges. Military analysts said ICBM missiles can be classified as intermediate-range weapons when their payloads are increased and ranges decreased. The main target of the Russian attack was the southeastern region of Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine's most important industrial region, and its capital, the city of Dnipro. Ukraine's air force said that besides the ICBM, Russian aircraft also launched a hypersonic Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile and seven subsonic Kh-101 cruise missiles. Ukrainian air defenses shot down six Kh-101 missiles, the air force reported. Dnipropetrovsk Governor Serhiy Lysak said his region bore the brunt of the Russian attack. "Since early in the morning, the aggressor massively attacked our region," Lysak reported on Telegram, adding that preliminary information showed that an industrial facility was damaged in the regional capital, Dnipro, where two fires were started by the attack. Explosions were also reported in Kremenchuk, in the central Poltava region. Moscow's use of a large number of sophisticated missiles as opposed to the usual drone attacks appears to be in response to Ukraine's gaining approval to use some Western-donated long-range missile systems to strike deeper into Russia. On November 20, Russian military bloggers and a source cited by Reuters reported that Ukraine had fired up to 12 Franco-British Storm Shadow missiles into Russia's Kursk region, part of which has been under Ukrainian control following a surprise incursion by Ukrainian troops in August. A spokesman for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer declined to confirm whether the missiles had been used. Previously, London had given permission to use the Storm Shadows, which have a 250-kilometer range, within Ukraine's territory. Earlier this week, Ukraine reportedly used ATACMS to strike a military facility in Russia's Bryansk region after Biden was reported as giving his OK. The White House has not officially confirmed the approval and Ukraine hasn't directly acknowledged the use of ATACMS on Russian targets. Russia has long warned that Ukraine's use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike inside its territory would mark a serious escalation of the conflict. On November 21, Moscow said a new U.S. missile defence base in the Polish town of Redzikowo near the Baltic coast, which was opened on November 13 as part of a broader NATO missile shield, will lead to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger. "This is another frankly provocative step in a series of deeply destabilising actions by the Americans and their allies in the North Atlantic alliance in the strategic sphere," Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. "This leads to undermining strategic stability, increasing strategic risks and, as a result, to an increase in the overall level of nuclear danger," Zakharova said. Poland rejected the claim, saying there were no nuclear missiles at the base. "It is a base that serves the purpose of defense, not attack," Foreign Ministry spokesman Pawel Wronski said on November 21. At least 38 people were killed and more than 40 wounded after gunmen opened fire on a convoy of cars carrying Shi'ite Muslims in northwest Pakistan as religious tension in the region rises. Three women and a child were among those killed in the November 21 attack, police told RFE/RL's Radio Mashaal. The convoy of 200 cars was heading from Peshawar to Parachinar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province near the border with Afghanistan when the unknown gunmen attacked. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of deadly confrontations in the Kurram region. Police, who were escorting the cars, said the death toll could climb. There were about 700 people in the convoy, according to law enforcement. Tension in Kurram began to heat up after 17 people were killed in an attack on a convoy on October 12. There have been about a handful of deadly attacks since then. Sunnis and Shi'a live together in Kurram and have clashed violently over land, forests, and other property as well as religion over the years, despite government and law enforcement efforts to build peace. Influential Ukrainian tycoon Dmytro Firtash is among eight people targeted by fresh British sanctions that accuse the group, which includes his wife, Lada, of large-scale, international corruption. Angolan-Russian billionaire Isabel dos Santos and Latvian politician and businessman Aivars Lembergs are also among those hit by the new sanctions announced on November 21. The British government accuses Firtash of bribing officials to secure mining licenses for his companies and profiting illegally from Ukraine's gas-transportation system. Firtash is also linked to financier Denys Horbunenko, a resident of the United Kingdom who was added to the sanctions list on November 21 for his association with Firtash. Firtash has faced legal scrutiny in Ukraine over embezzlement and money-laundering accusations involving fraudulent gas-trading schemes. The United States has been seeking his extradition from Austria on charges of bribing Indian officials. Firtash, who gained prominence in the 2000s through his joint venture RosUkrEnergo with Russian energy giant Gazprom, has denied allegations of working in Russia's interests. Dos Santos, daughter of former Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is Africa's first female billionaire. She is accused of corruption in Angola, where she allegedly exploited her political connections for personal gain. Dos Santos claims she has held Russian citizenship since birth, as she was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in 1973 under the former Soviet Union. Lembergs, a former populist mayor of the Latvian city of Ventspils, has been convicted in Latvia of corruption and sentenced to five years in prison. He claims the charges against him are politically motivated. The sanctions are part of a British efforts to combat international corruption and disrupt the financial networks of individuals accused of abusing their power for personal enrichment. The measures include asset freezes, travel bans, and restricting these individuals from accessing the U.K.'s financial system or entering the country. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and Muhammad Deif, a military commander in the Iran-backed group Hamas, alleging they committed crimes against humanity in the ongoing Gaza war. All three are accused of committing war crimes connected to the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas, an EU- and U.S-designated terrorist organization that is part of Tehran's network of proxies in the Middle East, and Israel's subsequent military intervention in the Gaza Strip. Iran's backing of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-supported militant group and political party that controls much of the southern part of Israel's neighbor, Lebanon, has sparked fears that the war in the Gaza Strip will engulf the Middle East. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, while the European Union blacklists its armed wing but not its political party. Hezbollah’s political party has seats in the Lebanese parliament. The court said the warrants had been classified as "secret" to protect witnesses and to safeguard the conduct of the investigations. Israel, which claims it killed Deif in July, blasted the move as "a dark moment for the ICC." Hamas, which has never officially acknowledged Deif's death, called the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant an "important step toward justice." The ICC said it had issued the arrest warrant for Deif as the prosecutor had not been able to determine whether he was dead. His warrant shows charges of mass killings during the October 7 attack on Israel that left some 1,200 dead, as well as charges of rape and the taking of around 240 hostages in the attack. "The Chamber considered that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both [Israeli] individuals intentionally and knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity, from at least 8 October 2023 to 20 May 2024," the ICC said in a statement . "This finding is based on the role of Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant in impeding humanitarian aid in violation of international humanitarian law and their failure to facilitate relief by all means at its disposal," it said. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar called the move against Netanyahu and Gallant "absurd" in a post on X, saying it was an attack of Israel's right to self-defense. "A dark moment for the ICC in The Hague, in which it lost all legitimacy for its existence and activity," Sa'ar said. Tehran has yet to comment publicly on the warrants. Neither the United States nor Israel have recognized the ICC's jurisdiction. A U.S. National Security Council spokesperson said Washington "fundamentally rejects" the issuance of the arrest warrants and "the troubling process errors that led to this decision. Meanwhile, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said in a post on X that ICC decisions "are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States." The court said Israel's acceptance of the court's jurisdiction was not required. However, the court itself has no law enforcement levers to enforce warrants and relies on cooperation from its member states. Russian police have conducted searches at the PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art in the city of Perm, as well as at the home of its current director, in connection with a case against former director Marat Gelman , REN-TV reported, citing anonymous sources. The PERMM Museum announced on social media that it would remain closed until 3 p.m. local time due to "technical reasons." Gelman, a well-known art dealer who currently lives in Montenegro, where he owns an art gallery, was placed on Russia’s federal wanted list in December 2022 under a criminal charge, though details of the accusation remain unclear. In an interview with Current Time, Gelman suggested that the charges might be in connection with him "discrediting" the Russian military, a common pretext used against critics of Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Gelman has been a vocal member of the Anti-War Committee and a member of the Permanent Committee of the Free Russia Forum. He has repeatedly expressed his support for Ukraine and his opposition to Russia's war efforts. The raid in Perm is part of a broader pattern of increasing pressure on Gelman. In the past week, he was added to Russia's list of "terrorists and extremists," with a designation indicating an ongoing criminal case against him. Critics argue this move is part of a crackdown on anti-war activists and dissenting voices within and beyond Russia. The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad announced on November 21 that 11 people were arrested after being found responsible for the deadly collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station in Serbia's second-largest city. The huge canopy collapsed on November 1, killing 15 people and seriously injuring another two. The accident occurred after the railway station, built in 1964, had been renovated twice in recent years by a consortium of four companies -- China Railway International and China Communications Construction, France's Egis, and Hungary's Utiber. Among those arrested are former Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Minister Goran Vesic, and the ex-director of Railway Infrastructure, Jelena Tanaskovic. They face charges of committing criminal acts against public security, endangering the public, and irregular construction work, the prosecutor said in a statement, adding that they faced up to 12 years in prison. The arrests came after public protests that turned violent demanded the punishment of those responsible amid accusations of corruption that resulted in substandard renovation work on the railway station. In a message on X, Vesic wrote that he had not been arrested, but had "voluntarily responded to the call of the police officers" and "made himself available to police authorities." Vesic, an official from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, resigned after the accident on November 4 but said he did not accept blame for the accident. Tomislav Momirovic, who headed the Construction, Transport, and Infrastructure Ministry from 2020 to 2022, submitted his resignation as trade minister on November 20. The same day, Tanaskovic resigned as head of Serbian Railway Infrastructure. Opposition politicians have voiced scepticism about the arrests and demanded that the case be handed over to organized-crime prosecutors. The office of Belarusian opposition leader Svyatlana Tsikhanouskaya has issued a statement condemning the recent extradition from Vietnam to Belarus of Vasil Verameychyk, who fought on the Ukrainian side against invading Russian troops. Verameychyk, who moved to Vietnam after he was denied permission to settle in Lithuania because of he had previously served in the Belarusian Army, was detained in Vietnam earlier this year. Despite international appeals, Vietnamese authorities proceeded with his extradition in late October 2024. Tsikhanouskaya's office described the extradition as a direct consequence of the repressive policies of the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, highlighting the regime's efforts to target opponents beyond its borders. The statement emphasizes the urgent need for stronger international mechanisms to protect human rights, not only for Belarusians fleeing repression but also for those supporting Ukraine in its efforts to repel Russia's ongoing invasion. It calls on the international community to adopt individualized approaches when reviewing cases for international protection, end cooperation with the Belarusian security forces, and suspend bilateral agreements on extradition and legal assistance with Belarus. Additionally, the statement advises Belarusians abroad to remain vigilant against potential actions by Lukashenka's security services. It recommends consulting resources like Pashpart.org to identify countries deemed unsafe for Belarusians at risk of persecution.
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price. Following the court ruling, Tesla shareholders met in June and ratified Musk’s 2018 pay package for a second time, again by an overwhelming margin. Defense attorneys then argued that the second vote makes clear that Tesla shareholders, with full knowledge of the flaws in the 2018 process that McCormick pointed out, were adamant that Musk is entitled to the pay package. They asked the judge to vacate her order directing Tesla to rescind the pay package. McCormick, who seemed skeptical of the defense arguments during an August hearing, said in Monday’s ruling that those arguments were fatally flawed. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion. The judge noted, among other things, that a stockholder vote standing alone cannot ratify a conflicted-controller transaction. “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here due to multiple, material misstatements in the proxy statement,” she added. Meanwhile, McCormick found that the $5.6 billion fee request by the shareholder’s attorneys, which at one time approached $7 billion based on Tesla’s trading price, went too far. “In a case about excessive compensation, that was a bold ask,” McCormick wrote. Attorneys for the Tesla shareholder argue that their work resulted in the “massive” benefit of returning shares to Tesla that otherwise would have gone to Musk and diluted the stock held by other Tesla investors. They value that benefit at $51.4 billion, using the difference between the stock price at the time of McCormick’s January ruling and the strike price of some 304 million stock options granted to Musk. While finding that the methodology used to calculate the fee request was sound, the judge noted that the Delaware’s Supreme Court has noted that fee award guidelines “must yield to the greater policy concern of preventing windfalls to counsel.” “The fee award here must yield in this way, because $5.6 billion is a windfall no matter the methodology used to justify it,” McCormick wrote. A fee award of $345 million, she said, was “an appropriate sum to reward a total victory.” The fee award amounts to almost exactly half the current record $688 million in legal fees awarded in 2008 in litigation stemming from the collapse of Enron.
Microchip Technology lowers quarterly revenue forecast, shuts Arizona factoryEmpowered Funds LLC increased its position in shares of American Public Education, Inc. ( NASDAQ:APEI – Free Report ) by 5.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 86,299 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 4,288 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC owned 0.49% of American Public Education worth $1,273,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Victory Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of American Public Education during the third quarter worth about $299,000. GSA Capital Partners LLP boosted its position in American Public Education by 184.0% during the third quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 31,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $471,000 after purchasing an additional 20,710 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in American Public Education during the third quarter valued at approximately $227,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in American Public Education during the third quarter valued at approximately $165,000. Finally, Quarry LP boosted its position in American Public Education by 94.0% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 4,666 shares of the company’s stock valued at $82,000 after purchasing an additional 2,261 shares during the last quarter. 79.62% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. Insider Buying and Selling In other news, Director Michael David Braner purchased 17,872 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 30th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $16.77 per share, with a total value of $299,713.44. Following the acquisition, the director now owns 1,922,610 shares in the company, valued at approximately $32,242,169.70. This trade represents a 0.94 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . 11.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders. American Public Education Stock Performance Wall Street Analyst Weigh In APEI has been the subject of several recent research reports. Barrington Research increased their price target on American Public Education from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. B. Riley raised their price objective on American Public Education from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com cut American Public Education from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Truist Financial raised their price objective on American Public Education from $15.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. Read Our Latest Stock Analysis on American Public Education About American Public Education ( Free Report ) American Public Education, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides online and campus-based postsecondary education and career learning in the United States. It operates through three segments: American Public University System, Rasmussen University, and Hondros College of Nursing. The company offers 184 degree programs and 134 certificate programs in various fields of study, including nursing, national security, military studies, intelligence, homeland security, business, health science, information technology, justice studies, education, and liberal arts; and career learning opportunities in leadership, finance, human resources, and other fields of study critical to the federal government workforce. See Also Receive News & Ratings for American Public Education Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for American Public Education and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .The latest proposal would produce an average increase of $4.33 a month for unsubsidized customers, the utility estimates. Subscribe to continue reading this article. Already subscribed? To login in, click here.Dec 12 (Reuters) - Shareholder lawyers are doing a bit of gloating after the U.S. Supreme Court tossed a second securities class action on Tuesday. The justices dismissed a case in which chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O) , opens new tab was challenging an appellate decision that revived an investor class action accusing the company of misrepresenting its dependence on the volatile crypto mining industry. Although the court’s one-sentence order offered no explanation, the dismissal wasn’t a surprise: As my Reuters colleague John Kruzel had reported , some of the justices signaled concerns during oral arguments last month that the case did not present a clear legal issue and was instead a dispute over facts. The Nvidia dismissal came three weeks after the justices dismissed Facebook’s attempt to reverse an appellate opinion allowing investors to proceed with claims that the Meta (META.O) , opens new tab subsidiary fraudulently failed to reveal improper data harvesting by political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. During oral argument in that case, Reuters reported , the justices struggled to discern principles for disclosing risk in the context of events that have already occurred. Both Facebook and Nvidia told Reuters that they will continue to defend themselves in the lower courts. The securities defense bar was optimistic last spring when the Supreme Court agreed to hear the Facebook and Nvidia cases, since both offered the justices an opportunity to tighten the standards for securities fraud complaints. Broadly speaking, defendants hoped that the court would make it harder for shareholders to survive dismissal motions, which are a key hurdle in securities class actions. (Investors are not permitted to obtain discovery from corporate defendants until they have defeated motions to dismiss their cases.) So you can see why plaintiffs lawyers are relieved that the court opted not to decide either case. The obvious question going forward, though, is whether the justices – having been burned twice in granting review of shareholder class actions – will be shy about agreeing to hear new securities cases. The most optimistic take I heard on Thursday from plaintiffs' lawyers is that the Facebook and Nvidia dismissals are a tacit acknowledgment from the Supreme Court that it doesn’t need to keep meddling with private securities litigation. Shareholder counsel Javier Bleichmar of Bleichmar Fonti & Auld and Paul Bland of Berger Montague, who both filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Nvidia case, said the Supreme Court has already weighed in on the big questions arising from a 30-year-old law intended to dissuade frivolous securities class actions and may not want to get tangled in fact-specific issues. "These two cases are not an aberration," said Nvidia shareholders' counsel Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler. "The court is definitely going to think twice about hearing class action cases raising the same kind of tropes." Kevin Russell of Russell & Woofter also predicted heightened scrutiny from the court, especially when petitions present “open-ended questions or multiple theories for reversal.” (Russell was Supreme Court counsel for Facebook's investors but was speaking just as an appellate practitioner.) Both the Facebook and Nvidia cases, Russell said, evolved after the Supreme Court granted review, leaving the justices with a “mismatch” between the issues they originally expected to resolve and the issues that emerged after full briefing. To avoid falling into the same trap in the future, Russell said, the court “will want to see defendants articulating clear, discrete legal rules.” Defense lawyer Morgan Ratner of Sullivan & Cromwell also told me that strategic framing will be crucial for companies asking the justices to take securities cases. She and fellow Sullivan & Cromwell partner Judson Littleton, who both filed amicus briefs in this term’s securities cases, said it’s important for the Supreme Court to find broad legal principles in fact-specific cases in order to guide lower courts. The trick for the securities defense bar, Ratner said, will be to convince the justices, “without overselling their case,” to provide that necessary guidance through their clients’ cases. It’s even arguable that the Supreme Court’s decision to punt on the Facebook and Nvidia cases makes it more likely, rather than less, that the justices will eventually have to resolve the questions those cases presented, said defense lawyer Mark Foster of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and law professor Joseph Grundfest of Stanford University. One of the big questions , opens new tab in the Nvidia case was whether plaintiffs should be permitted to rely on an expert opinion to establish a defendant’s fraudulent intent. That question remains unresolved after the Supreme Court’s dismissal of Nvidia’s petition – which means, according to Grundfest and Foster, that shareholder lawyers will probably increase their use of expert opinions in securities class action complaints. Foster said he expects to see more expert reports on, for instance, market conditions or industrywide knowledge. Plaintiffs' lawyers, he hypothesized, will use such reports to argue that the only explanation for defense conduct is fraud. It's quite likely, he and Grundfest said, that as these reports become more common, lower courts will reach different conclusions about their interpretation – and that the Supreme Court will ultimately have to set a uniform standard. “Dismissing Nvidia means the issue is delayed, not decided,” said Grundfest, who submitted amicus briefs at both the petition and merits stages of the case. “This question will be back.” Moreover, as lower courts continue to mull the questions left unresolved by the Nvidia and Facebook dismissal, corporate defendants will at least have the benefit of Supreme Court briefing – from not only shareholders and defense lawyers but also the U.S. Justice Department, which argued on behalf of the shareholders in both cases – to focus and sharpen their arguments. That’s not much solace for companies worried about shareholder class actions. But it’s all they’re getting for now. Read more: US Supreme Court dismisses Nvidia's bid to avoid securities fraud suit US Supreme Court tosses case involving securities fraud suit against Facebook In Nvidia and Meta cases, Supreme Court will review shareholder class action dismissal rules Sign up here. Reporting By Alison Frankel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. , opens new tab Thomson Reuters Alison Frankel has covered high-stakes commercial litigation as a columnist for Reuters since 2011. A Dartmouth college graduate, she has worked as a journalist in New York covering the legal industry and the law for more than three decades. Before joining Reuters, she was a writer and editor at The American Lawyer. Frankel is the author of Double Eagle: The Epic Story of the World’s Most Valuable Coin.
NEW YORK , Nov. 25, 2024 /CNW/ - Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd. (TSX: GLXY) ("GDH Ltd." or the "Company") is pleased to announce that Galaxy Digital Holdings LP (the "Issuer," and together with GDH Ltd., "Galaxy") has closed its previously announced offering of $402.5 million aggregate principal amount of 2.50% exchangeable senior notes due 2029 (the "Notes"), after the exercise in full by the initial purchasers of the Notes of an option to purchase up to an additional $52.5 million aggregate principal amount of the Notes. The Issuer intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to support the build-out of high-performance computing infrastructure at its Helios data center in West Texas and for general corporate purposes, including potential repurchases of its existing indebtedness. As previously announced, the Company's board of directors has approved a proposed corporate reorganization (the "Reorganization") whereby Galaxy intends to consummate a series of related transactions in connection with its re-domiciliation to the United States , as a result of which the ordinary shares of GDH Ltd. ("ordinary shares") outstanding immediately prior to such transactions will automatically convert into shares of Class A common stock (the "Class A shares," and, together with ordinary shares, the "Common Stock") of Galaxy Digital Inc., a Delaware holding company ("GDI"). Prior to September 1, 2029 , the Notes are exchangeable only upon satisfaction of certain conditions and only during certain periods, and thereafter, the Notes will be exchangeable at any time prior to the close of business on the second scheduled trading day immediately preceding the maturity date. The Notes are exchangeable on the terms set forth in the indenture for the Notes into cash, ordinary shares if the exchange occurs prior to the Reorganization or Class A shares if the exchange occurs after the Reorganization, or a combination of cash and ordinary shares or Class A shares, as applicable, in each case, at the Issuer's election. The exchange rate is initially 10,497.5856 shares of Common Stock per $250,000 principal amount of Notes, equivalent to an initial exchange price of approximately USD$23.81 ( CAD$33.30 equivalent based on the November 20, 2024 exchange rate) per share of Common Stock. The initial exchange price of the Notes represents a premium of approximately 37.50% to the CAD$24.22 closing price of the ordinary shares on the TSX on November 20, 2024 , the pricing date. The exchange rate is subject to adjustment in some events. In addition, following certain corporate events that occur prior to the maturity date or the Issuer's delivery of a notice of redemption, the Issuer will increase, in certain circumstances, the exchange rate for a holder who elects to exchange its Notes in connection with such a corporate event or a notice of redemption, as the case may be. The Notes are general unsecured obligations of the Issuer, will accrue interest at a rate of 2.50% per year, payable semi-annually in arrears on June 1 and December 1 of each year, beginning on June 1, 2025 . The Notes will mature on December 1, 2029 , unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or exchanged. The Notes are not redeemable by the Issuer at any time before December 6, 2027 , except in certain circumstances set forth in the indenture. The Notes will be redeemable, in whole or in part, for cash at the Issuer's election at any time, and from time to time, on or after December 6, 2027 and prior to the 41st scheduled trading immediately before the maturity date, but only if the last reported sale price per Common Stock exceeds 130% of the exchange price for a specified period of time. The redemption price for any Note called for redemption will be the principal amount of such Note plus accrued and unpaid interest on such Note to, but not including, the redemption date. If a "fundamental change" (as defined in the indenture) occurs, then, subject to certain conditions, noteholders may require the Issuer to repurchase their Notes for cash. The repurchase price will be equal to the principal amount of the Notes to be repurchased, plus accrued and unpaid interest, if any, to, but not including, the applicable repurchase date. The Notes and any Common Stock issuable or deliverable upon exchange of the Notes have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), or any applicable state or foreign securities laws, or qualified by a prospectus in Canada . The Notes and any Common Stock issuable or deliverable upon exchange of the Notes may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration under the Securities Act or an applicable exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Following the Reorganization and subject to certain conditions, holders of the Notes are expected to have the benefit under a registration rights agreement to require GDI to register the resale of any Class A shares issuable upon exchange of the Notes on a shelf registration statement to be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This news release is neither an offer to sell nor the solicitation of an offer to buy the Notes or any other securities and shall not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, or a sale of, the Notes or any other securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful. Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward-Looking Statements The information in this press release may contain forward looking information or forward looking statements, including under Canadian securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the use of proceeds from the offering, our or our management team's expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Galaxy's business pipelines for banking, expectations for increased load capacity at the Helios site, mining goals and our ability to capture adjacent opportunities, including in high-performance computing and the Helios transaction, focus on self-custody and validator solutions and our commitment to the future of decentralized networks and the pending Reorganization, and the parties, perspectives and expectations, are forward-looking statements. In addition, any statements that refer to estimates, projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "possible," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "would" and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. The forward-looking statements contained in this document are based on our current expectations and beliefs concerning future developments and their potential effects on us taking into account information currently available to us. There can be no assurance that future developments affecting us will be those that we have anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks, uncertainties (some of which are beyond our control) or other assumptions that may cause actual results or performance to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to: (1) the inability to complete the proposed Reorganization, due to the failure to obtain shareholder and stock exchange approvals, or otherwise; (2) changes to the proposed structure of the Reorganization that may be required or appropriate as a result of applicable laws or regulations or as a condition to obtaining shareholder or stock exchange approval of the Reorganization; (3) the ability to meet and maintain listing standards following the consummation of the Reorganization; (4) the risk that the Reorganization disrupt current plans and operations; (5) costs related to the Reorganization, operations and strategy; (6) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (7) the possibility that Galaxy may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; (8) changes or events that impact the cryptocurrency industry, including potential regulation, that are out of our control; (9) the risk that our business will not grow in line with our expectations or continue on its current trajectory; (10) the possibility that our addressable market is smaller than we have anticipated and/or that we may not gain share of it; and (11) the possibility that there is a disruption in mining impacting our ability to achieve expected results or change in power dynamics impacting our results or our ability to increase load capacity; (12) any delay or failure to consummate the business mandates or achieve its pipeline goals in banking and Gk8; (13) liquidity or economic conditions impacting our business; (14) regulatory concerns, technological challenges, cyber incidents or exploits on decentralized networks; (15) the failure to enter into definitive agreements or otherwise complete the anticipated transactions with respect to the non-binding term sheet for Helios; (16) TSX approval of the offering and (17) those other risks contained in the Annual Information Forms for GDH Ltd. and the Issuer for the year ended December 31, 2023 available on their respective profiles at www.sedarplus.ca and their respective Management's Discussion and Analysis, filed on November 7, 2024 . Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, a decline in the digital asset market or general economic conditions; the possibility that our addressable market is smaller than we have anticipated and/or that we may not gain share of the stated addressable market; the failure or delay in the adoption of digital assets and the blockchain ecosystem; a delay or failure in developing infrastructure for our business or our businesses achieving our banking and Gk8 mandates; delays or other challenges in the mining business related to hosting, power or our mining infrastructure, or our ability to capture adjacent opportunities; any challenges faced with respect to decentralized networks, considerations with respect to liquidity and capital planning and changes in applicable law or regulation and adverse regulatory developments. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, they could cause our actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. We are not undertaking any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. You should not take any statement regarding past trends or activities as a representation that the trends or activities will continue in the future. Accordingly, you should not put undue reliance on these statements. Other Disclaimers The TSX has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release. SOURCE Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd.In Denton, the election will likely be decided by a coin toss. In a convincing argument against the “my vote doesn’t count” lament, the election for the southwest Lancaster County village board of trustees came down to a three-way tie on election night. Six people were running for three positions. When election night came to a close, Tim Reckling, Amanda Fangmeier and John V. Juricek all had 43 votes — a three-way tie for the third seat. Once the provisional and other uncounted ballots were tallied Nov. 15, Juricek and Fangmeier had pulled ahead of Reckling by one vote. So now what? Well, according to state statute, there’s a mandatory recount of all three, since the one-vote margin was close enough to trigger the recount. That will happen Monday. Assuming there’s no change and Juricek and Fangmeier remain tied — or if it goes back to a three-way tie — state statute says the decision is made by “drawing lots.” Lancaster County Election Commissioner Todd Wiltgen gets to decide exactly how that will happen: A coin toss, drawing straws, maybe drawing from a hat. And his decision depends on the outcome of the recount. Wiltgen said he’s inclined to have a coin toss, but if it goes back to a three-way tie, a coin toss wouldn’t work. One of the candidates could decide to withdraw, but in Denton, that’s not likely to happen, despite the fact that the dead-heat competitors are married. Juricek and Fangmeier are currently on the village board, and Juricek said they plan to see it through, but there won’t be any hard feelings once the spinning coin lands. Clearly, the small number of voters increases the chances of such an outcome, and several of Lancaster County’s smaller communities had election totals within just a few votes. But it’s a good reminder that voting does make a difference. Remember the 2000 Bush-Gore presidential election, fraught with hanging chads and court decisions, came down to a few hundred votes in Florida, where almost 6 million people cast votes. In Lancaster County, there was one other anomaly in the election, Wiltgen said. In one of the Raymond Central school board wards, no candidates were on the ballot, and the seat got 89 write-in votes. Wiltgen said he can’t assign votes to write-in candidates who haven’t filed affidavits (to avoid electing Mickey Mouse, for instance), but there was one candidate — Jason Wiig — who filed as a write-in after the deadline. That’s why he wasn’t on the ballot, but now Wiltgen can assign those 89 votes to Wiig. The moral there, apparently, is better late than never. As for the situation down south in Denton, Wiltgen — who was appointed election commissioner in 2023 — said he’s aware of a tie vote for a county board race in another part of the state about 10 years ago, and Juricek said there’s been a tie vote in Denton races before. This election, 277 people cast votes for the six candidates, and Juricek said a controversy over the condition of a park prompted more people to run. He chalks up the whole situation to small-town politics. Get local news delivered to your inbox!The (NASCIO) unveiled its , which serves as a road map for government agencies by highlighting the policy and technology areas IT leaders will focus on in the coming year. After surveying 50 state and territory chief information officers, cybersecurity claimed the top spot as the most critical priority, reprising its position in last year’s survey and emphasizing its importance in an increasingly digitally connected world. “Cyber has been the [or one of] the top spots for over 12 years now, and I think that shows that cyber is the most integral part of a state CIO office,” Meredith Ward, NASCIO deputy executive director, told . She noted that while cybersecurity tied with digital government services in 2024, this year it stands alone at the top — a testament to its growing significance amid evolving threats. This year, the category also includes risk management at No. 1. Artificial intelligence surged to the second position from third on last year’s list, to little surprise given its expansive impact in state services, particularly related to generative AI (GenAI). Ward says their organization “has and will continue to see an expansion of GenAI use in states and for many things.” The category also includes machine learning and robotic process automation (RPA). Digital government and digital services took the third spot on the list — in virtually every aspect of government technology today, from greater investments in citizen-centric public service platforms to the of water utility cybersecurity strategies months. While many priorities on the list were not unfamiliar, one forged a new path onto the list for 2025. Accessibility debuted in the Top 10 this year for the first time, potentially driven by new compliance requirements. “I believe this is solely due to the [Department of Justice] and the impending 2026 and 2027 deadlines for states and localities,” Ward said, noting many states have been following these guidelines for years, but this is the first time widespread penalties will come into play if they’re not followed. Budget and cost control being added to the priorities list is a bit of a dark horse; this category resurfaces on the list for the first time since 2021. Ward attributed the reappearance to cautious fiscal planning post-pandemic. “In 2020, states braced for impact and anticipated less revenue because of the pandemic. Turns out the impact wasn’t as great as was anticipated and states were in a good financial position coming out of the pandemic,” she said. “All of this is cyclical and that’s what we are seeing now — states bracing for impact and being cautious to see what fiscal conditions will be next year.” Another notable change was workforce dropping to ninth place from fifth in 2024. Ward said states are simply shifting strategies, and various aspects are impacting the change. “States have made some progress in hiring, they are outsourcing functions, and they have dealt with it so long that they know workforce challenges are here to stay,” she said. “In 2025, I see reskilling and upskilling being big. I also expect skills-based hiring to expand.” Other interesting new developments reflected in the 2025 list are legacy modernization falling one spot to No. 5, and identity and access management and cloud services each climbing up one spot from last year’s list — rising to No. 7 and No. 8 respectively. On an accompanying ranking, however, legacy fared far better. Among 2025 Priority Technologies, Applications and Tools, legacy application modernization/renovation ranked second behind AI/RPA. The full list of priorities for 2025 is Cybersecurity and Risk Management; Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation; Digital Government and Digital Services; Data Management and Analytics; Legacy Modernization; Budget, Cost Control and Fiscal Management; Identity and Access Management; Cloud Services; Workforce; and Accessibility. Find more information on NASCIO’s CIO priorities at .