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WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland announced Monday that he will run to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee next year, directly challenging fellow Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler as the party prepares to fight a second Trump administration and an emboldened Republican majority. "House Democrats must stand in the breach to defend the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy," Raskin wrote in a letter to colleagues. “That is our historic assignment now. We dare not fail.” Raskin said in the letter — obtained by The Associated Press — that he decided to run for the post after spending the week consulting with House Democrats and “engaging in serious introspection” about where the party is following their stunning electoral defeat last month that handed Republicans control of Congress and the White House. While currently the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Raskin said that come next year, the Judiciary Committee under his leadership would become "the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism" as well as other efforts by President Donald Trump and his allies to thwart the Constitution. Being the face of the resistance against Trump is not new territory for Raskin who spent the last two years on Oversight as the most vocal defender of President Joe Biden and his family as they faced a sprawling Republican investigation — encouraged by Trump — into their various business affairs. Raskin, who is a former constitutional law professor, also helped draft articles of impeachment against the incoming president for his encouragement of the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and led the impeachment prosecution in the Senate. But by throwing his hat in the ring, Raskin is inviting what a bitter intra-party fight with Nadler, who is currently serving his 17th term in Congress and who has held the top spot on Judiciary since 2019. Democrats have over the years rarely broken from the seniority system for committee assignments, no matter how long someone has held a position, making the outcome of the race uncertain. Both men did not respond to requests for comment but Raskin closed his letter by praising Nadler, saying that he made this decision “with respect and boundless admiration” for him. “If I’m lucky enough to be chosen for this responsibility in the 119th Congress, I will turn to Jerry first and throughout for his always wise counsel and political judgment,” Raskin added.Beware! Now AI Can Detect Your Moves on RoadNovato minimum wage set to increase
CHANTILLY, Va., Dec. 02, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Parsons Corporation (NYSE: PSN), announced today that the official inauguration took place on 27 November 2024 for the $27 billion Riyadh Metro. Parsons is one of three consultants working as part of a Parsons-led joint venture known as the Riyadh Metro Transit Consultants (RMTC), along with Egis and SYSTRA, providing project and construction management on two of the Royal Commission for Riyadh City’s (RCRC) Riyadh Metro contracts which Parsons has now successfully delivered. “From its inception, the Riyadh Metro was conceived as a transformative project to reshape urban mobility and dramatically improve the lives of residents and visitors alike. On behalf of Parsons, a long-term partner of the RCRC, and the lead consultant for the delivery of this world-class system, I would like to congratulate His Majesty King Salman and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman on its first day of operations,” said Pierre Santoni, President, Infrastructure EMEA at Parsons. “We look forward to supporting the city of Riyadh and the Kingdom in the successful completion of subsequent stages of the metro and the wider Saudi Vision 2030, by using global experience and deep local expertise to deliver excellence on every project.” The Riyadh Metro is set to be the longest driverless metro line in the world, made up of 176.5 kilometers of track, 86 transit stations, and 7 rail depots. The project marks a significant milestone in the Kingdom's infrastructure development journey. In addition to using the latest technology to provide a world-class transportation experience, the project addresses Riyadh’s traffic challenges and will improve traffic flows, reduce commute times and alleviate traffic congestion creating a more sustainable future for the capital city in line with the Saudi Vision 2030. As of August 2024, RMTC worked more than 7 million hours lost time injury free, which is a testament to the health, safety and environment (HSE) measures implemented on the project. The project has had more than 450,000 HSE inductions and over 13,000 HSE campaigns. Parsons has partnered with more than 400 rail and transit clients, working on large, complex brownfield expansion and greenfield projects around the world. With a presence in EMEA spanning more than 65 years, Parsons brings deep domain expertise across project and program management, urban development, transportation (including rail, metro, aviation, roads, and ports), smart mobility, asset management, and master planning. About Parsons Parsons (NYSE: PSN) is a leading disruptive technology provider in the national security and global infrastructure markets, with capabilities across cyber and intelligence, space and missile defense, transportation, environmental remediation, urban development, and critical infrastructure protection. Please visit Parsons.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook to learn how we’re making an impact. To join Parsons in creating the future of the Middle East, visit parsons.com/mea . Media Contact: Lara Masri +971 4 4029767 Lara.Masri@parsons.com Investor Relations Contact: Dave Spille + 1 703.775.6191 Dave.Spille@parso ns.com
It's unusual for a new social media service to get a foothold in a marketplace entrenched by the likes of X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and TikTok which, dominate people's phones. But Bluesky , a nearly 2-year-old app, is now grabbing attention amid a recent surge of new users, which the company says is likely due to growing frustrations with X. While the platform has grown since it opened as an invite-only service in February 2023, its membership snowballed following the November 5 presidential election. Bluesky currently has more than 22 million users, up from about 12 million people in mid-October, according to the company's data. Bluesky believes its recent growth is partly due to changes at X under billionaire owner Elon Musk, according to Bluesky Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang, who recently spoke to CBS MoneyWatch. Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, has overhauled the service, changing its name to X and prioritizing accounts from people who pay for a blue checkmark — although accounts with more than 2,500 "verified subscriber followers" get access to Premium features for free . Ad sales almost immediately softened after Musk took over the platform, with companies including Apple, Coca-Cola and Disney removing paid ads from X last year . Most recently, The Guardian said it would no longer be posting its content under its official account on X. In its announcement, the British newspaper described X as "toxic," adding that the platform has been used by Musk to shape political discourse. Musk became one of the most viral voices on elections during the 2024 campaign, frequently sharing conspiratorial narratives while promoting President-elect Donald Trump, a CBS News investigation found. When Twitter became X, "it was no longer a public town square, and now it's more of a partisan microphone," Wang said, adding, "that is a big reason why we think people are coming over." X didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. What is the difference between X and Bluesky? Bluesky resembles the "old Twitter" in terms of layout and content, wrote PCWorld tech writer Dave Parrack in a recent column. He added, "Bluesky feels like a safe haven. There's very little trolling , and when it does happen, people aren't biting." Bluesky users can find people to follow through so-called " starter packs ," or curated lists of people to follow by interest or fields, such as this group of garden writers . That enables users to quickly build a feed of posts from people that they pick, rather than being fed content by a corporate algorithm, the company says. Because people can tailor their interests and connect with other like-minded users, there's more interaction on the service than on X, according to Wang. Some companies are also reporting more engagement with their posts on the Bluesky app versus rival platforms. An executive for The Boston Globe, for instance noted that the newspaper's posts on Bluesky receive three times the traffic as on Meta's Threads. "Thirty percent of users Bluesky are posters versus 1% on Twitter," Wang said. Even so, it's questionable whether Bluesky's jump in new users is making much of a dent in X's consumer base. The presidential election delivered a surge in traffic to Musk's social media service, according to tracking service Similarweb. It found that more than 46 million U.S. users visited X on November 6, the day after President-elect Donald Trump's win — more than any day in the prior year. About 115,000 people in the U.S. deactivated their accounts on X that same day, its data shows. How Bluesky makes money While Bluesky's user base is growing quickly, the company remains small in terms of its funding and staff, which Wang describes as "a tiny team of 20" employees, including herself and CEO Jay Graber. The service was created by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, although the business has been independent since 2021. In October, the company raised $15 million in venture funding, which followed a seed round of $8 million in 2023. Wang noted that Bluesky is focused on figuring out how to sustain its business, which will soon include new revenue streams from subscriptions and financial transactions. "We are launching subscriptions at the end of this year," Wang noted. "It'll be custom aesthetics, custom avatar frames, maybe more video uploads." The company is also planning to enable financial transactions between users, such as if a game designer wants to sell his or her products to Bluesky users. The service would take a portion of the payment, Wang noted. Bluesky doesn't accept advertising, nor has it marketed itself in the wake of Musk's takeover of Twitter, she added. To be sure, Bluesky may never achieve the size of bigger social media networks, which advertisers flock to in order to reach much larger groups of users. For instance, Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, had more than 3 billion daily users across its apps in the most recent quarter, and booked almost $40 billion in revenue during that time. How do you sign up for Bluesky? Bluesky opened as an invitation-only platform in February 2023, but anyone can now sign up for the service. User handles on the service are a little bit different than X or other social media networks because they end with the site's domain, .bsky.social. Posts are limited to 300 characters, 20 more than on X. Photos and videos can also uploaded, though videos can't be longer than 60 seconds. GIFs and emojis are available, too. As with other platforms, you can tag people on Bluesky by typing "@" before their username, you can like posts by tapping a heart icon, and use hashtags to highlight a theme. Bluesky has added a menu to hashtags, so that when users click on one they'll get different options for seeing, or muting, posts on a particular topic. "It's more of a community space — it's more of a Reddit model, where you land in those cosy corners," Wang added. "At the end of the day it's all about the people, and what I encourage people to do is just come to Bluesky, give it a chance and see for yourself what the experience is like." The Associated Press contributed to this report. Elon Musk Social Media Twitter Aimee Picchi is the associate managing editor for CBS MoneyWatch, where she covers business and personal finance. She previously worked at Bloomberg News and has written for national news outlets including USA Today and Consumer Reports.
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks pulled Wall Street to another record amid mixed trading. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Monday after closing November at an all-time high. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.3%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 1%. Super Micro Computer, a stock that’s been on an AI-driven roller coaster, soared after saying an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or the company’s board. Retailers were mixed coming off Black Friday and heading into what’s expected to be the best Cyber Monday on record. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks are pulling Wall Street toward another record amid mixed trading on Monday. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in afternoon trading after closing its best month of the year at an all-time high . The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 86 points, or 0.2%, with a little more than an hour remaining in trading, while the Nasdaq composite was 0.9% higher. Super Micro Computer, a stock that’s been on an AI-driven roller coaster, soared 31.1% to lead the market. Following accusations of misconduct and the resignation of its public auditor , the maker of servers used in artificial-intelligence technology said an investigation found no evidence of misconduct by its management or by the company's board. It also said it doesn’t expect to restate its past financials and that it will find a new chief financial officer, appoint a general counsel and make other moves to strengthen its governance. Big Tech stocks also helped prop up the market. Gains of 1.8% for Microsoft and 2.9% for Meta Platforms were the two strongest forces pushing upward on the S&P 500. Intel was another propellant during the morning, but it lost an early gain to fall 1.1% after the chip company said CEO Pat Gelsinger has retired and stepped down from the board. Intel is looking for Gelsinger’s replacement, and its chair said it’s “committed to restoring investor confidence.” Intel recently lost its spot in the Dow Jones Industrial Average to Nvidia, which has skyrocketed in Wall Street's frenzy around AI. Stellantis, meanwhile, skidded following the announcement of its CEO’s departure . Carlos Tavares steps down after nearly four years in the top spot of the automaker, which owns car brands like Jeep, Citroën and Ram, amid an ongoing struggle with slumping sales and an inventory backlog at dealerships. The world’s fourth-largest automaker’s stock fell 6.3% in Milan. The majority of stocks in the S&P 500 likewise fell, including California utility PG&E. It dropped 3.7% after saying it would sell $2.4 billion of stock and preferred shares to raise cash. Retailers were mixed amid what’s expected to be the best Cyber Monday on record and coming off Black Friday . Target, which recently gave a forecast for the holiday season that left investors discouraged , fell 1.6%. Walmart , which gave a more optimistic forecast, rose 0.3%. Amazon, which looks to benefit from online sales from Cyber Monday, climbed 1.3%. The stock market largely took Donald Trump’s latest threat on tariffs in stride. The president-elect on Saturday threatened 100% tariffs against a group of developing economies if they act to undermine the U.S. dollar. Trump said he wants the group, headlined by Brazil, Russia, India and China, to promise it won’t create a new currency or otherwise try to undercut the U.S. dollar. The dollar has long been the currency of choice for global trade. Speculation has also been around a long time that other currencies could knock it off its mantle, but no contender has come close. The U.S. dollar’s value rose Monday against several other currencies, but one of its strongest moves likely had less to do with the tariff threats. The euro fell amid a political battle in Paris over the French government’s budget . The euro sank 0.7% against the U.S. dollar and broke below $1.05. In the bond market, Treasury yields gave up early gains to hold relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury climbed above 4.23% during the morning before falling back to 4.19%. That was just above its level of 4.18% late Friday. A report in the morning showed the U.S. manufacturing sector contracted again last month, but not by as much as economists expected. This upcoming week will bring several big updates on the job market, including the October job openings report, weekly unemployment benefits data and the all-important November jobs report. They could steer the next moves for Federal Reserve, which recently began pulling interest rates lower to give support to the economy. Economists expect Friday's headliner report to show U.S. employers accelerated their hiring in November, coming off October's lackluster growth that was hampered by damaging hurricanes and strikes. “We now find ourselves in the middle of this Goldilocks zone, where economic health supports earnings growth while remaining weak enough to justify potential Fed rate cuts,” according to Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide. In financial markets abroad, Chinese stocks led gains worldwide as monthly surveys showed improving conditions for manufacturing, partly driven by a surge in orders ahead of Trump’s inauguration next month. Both official and private sector surveys of factory managers showed strong new orders and export orders, possibly partly linked to efforts by importers in the U.S. to beat potential tariff hikes by Trump once he takes office. Indexes rose 0.7% in Hong Kong and 1.1% in Shanghai. AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.Bello's 19 lead Purdue Fort Wayne over Eastern Michigan 99-76
Syria's leader says elections could take 4 years: Al Arabiya interview
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Few presidents have come as far as fast in national politics as Jimmy Carter . In 1974, he was nearing the end of his single term as governor of Georgia when he told the world he wanted to be president. Two years later, he was the president-elect. Although his name recognition nationally was only 2% at the time of his announcement, Carter believed he could meet enough people personally to make a strong showing in the early presidential caucuses and primaries. He embarked on a 37-state tour, making more than 200 speeches before any of the other major candidates had announced. When voting began in Iowa and New Hampshire in the winter of 1976, Carter emerged the winner in both states. He rode that momentum all the way to the presidential nomination and held on to win a close contest in the general election. His career as a highly active former president lasted four full decades and ended only with his death Sunday in his hometown of Plains, Ga. He was 100 and had lived longer than any other U.S. president, battling cancer in both his brain and liver in his 90s. A life that bridged political eras James Earl Carter Jr. was the 39th U.S. president, elected as a Democrat displacing the incumbent Republican, Gerald Ford, in 1976. Carter would serve a single tumultuous term in the White House, beset by inflation, energy shortages, intraparty challenges and foreign crises. But he managed to win the nomination for a second term. He lost his bid for reelection to Republican Ronald Reagan in a landslide in 1980. Thereafter, he worked with Habitat for Humanity and traveled the globe as an indefatigable advocate for peace and human rights. He was given the U.N. Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1998 and awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Carter was the first president from the Deep South elected since the Civil War. He entered politics at a time when Democrats still dominated in his home state and region. He had begun his career as a naval officer in the submarine corps, but in 1953 he left the service to take over the family peanut business when his father died. He later served four years in Georgia's state legislature before making his first bid for governor in 1966. In that contest, he finished behind another Democrat, Lester Maddox, a populist figure known for brandishing a pickax handle to confront civil rights protesters outside his Atlanta restaurant. Carter shared much of the traditional white Southern cultural identity. But he was also noted for his support for integration and the Civil Rights Movement led by fellow Georgian Martin Luther King Jr. Four years after losing to Maddox, Carter was elected his successor and declared in his inaugural speech that "the time for racial discrimination is over." Time magazine would feature him on its cover four months later, making him a symbol of the "New South." And as his term as governor ended, he was all in on a presidential bid. But he did not burst onto the national stage so much as he crept up onto it, appearing before small groups in farming communities and elsewhere far from the big media centers. A meteoric rise to the White House Beyond his earnest image and rhetoric, Carter also had a savvy game plan based on the new presidential nominating rules that the Democratic Party had adopted in the early 1970s. Carter's team, led by campaign manager Hamilton Jordan, mastered this new road map, with Carter climbing from a strong showing in the still-new Iowa caucuses to a clean win in New Hampshire's primary. So though in January 1976 he was the first choice of only 4% of Democrats nationally, he won the first two events and leveraged that attention to capture the imagination of voters in other regions. Carter shut out segregationist champion George Wallace in the Southern primaries and also dominated in the industrial states of the North and Midwest. Democrats held 48 primaries or caucuses around the United States that year, and Carter won 30, with no other candidate winning more than five. Wherever he went, he was able to connect with rural voters and evangelicals wherever they were to be found — doing well in big cities but also in the sparsely populated parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. While Carter's juggernaut lost momentum in the summer and fall, with Republican President Gerald Ford nearly closing the polling gap by Election Day, the Georgian held on to win 50% of the popular vote in November. By winning in his home state and everywhere else in the South (save only Virginia) while holding on to enough of the key population centers in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, Carter was able to cobble together nearly 300 Electoral College votes without winning California, Illinois or Michigan. Troubles in office The surprisingly modest margin of Carter's victory over Ford augured more difficulties ahead. And as well as the Carter persona may have suited the national mood in 1976, it did not fit well in the Washington he found in 1977. All presidential candidates who "run against Washington" find it necessary to adjust their tactics if and when they are elected. But the former peanut farmer and his campaign staff known as the "Georgia mafia" never seemed to lose faith in the leverage they thought they had as outsiders. Almost immediately upon taking office, Carter encountered difficulties with various power centers in Congress. He and his tight circle of aides brought along from Georgia and the campaign were not attuned to congressional customs or prerogatives, and a variety of their agenda priorities ran afoul of their own party's preferences. A case in point was a "hit list" of Western water projects that the Carterites regarded as needless pork barrel spending. For a raft of Democratic senators and representatives facing reelection in thirsty states and districts, the list came as a declaration of war. Although Congress fought Carter to a draw on the projects, many of these Western seats would be lost to Republican challengers in 1978 and 1980. Carter did have signal successes in brokering a historic peace deal between Israel and Egypt and in securing Senate ratification of his treaties ceding the Panama Canal to Panama. He also managed to achieve significant reforms in regulations — especially those affecting energy production and transportation — that would eventually lower consumer prices. Carter had taken office amid historically high inflation and energy prices that had persisted since the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Carter appointed a new chair of the Federal Reserve, Paul Volcker, whose tight money policies eventually tamed inflation but also triggered a recession and the highest unemployment rates since the Great Depression. Along the way, there was more grief on the oil front as Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979 caused not only a price spike but long lines at the pump — worse than in 1973. Carter and the Democrats paid a price, suffering more than the usual losses for the president's party in the 1978 midterm elections, which greatly reduced Democratic margins in both the House and the Senate. Yet the Iranian crisis had even worse consequences. The revolution saw the overthrow of the Shah, a longtime ally of the U.S., and the installation of a stern theocratic regime led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a fierce critic of the United States. When Carter agreed to grant the Shah a visa to receive cancer treatments in the U.S., young followers of the ayatollah overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran . Fifty-two Americans were taken hostage for 444 days. Carter's efforts to free them were unavailing. An airborne raid intended to free them ended in catastrophe in the Iranian desert, leaving eight U.S. service members dead after a collision of aircraft on the ground. Afghanistan becomes an issue Yet another blow was dealt to Carter's standing when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to prop up its client regime there. Opposing that aggression was popular, but Carter's decision to retaliate by having the U.S. boycott the 1980 Olympics in Moscow was less so. Carter was able to use the hostage crisis to his advantage in suppressing the challenge to his nomination mounted by Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Carter refused to debate Kennedy and made the primaries a kind of referendum on the Iranian situation. Enough Democrats rallied to his side that Kennedy's bid, a favorite cause of liberal activists and organized labor, fell far short. Still, it contributed to the weakness of Carter's standing in the general election. And what had worked against a challenger from the Democratic left did not work when Carter faced one from the Republican right. Ronald Reagan was a former two-term governor of California who had sought the nomination twice before, and he did not begin 1980 as the consensus choice of his party. But he wove a complex set of issues into a fabric with broad appeal. He proposed sweeping tax cuts as a tonic for the economy, more spending on defense, a more aggressive foreign policy and, just as important, a return to the traditional values of "faith, freedom, family, work and neighborhood." He also opposed abortion and busing for racial integration and favored school prayer — the three hottest buttons in social policy at the time. After a come-from-behind win in New Hampshire and a sweep of the Southern primaries, Reagan never looked back. His triumph at the Republican National Convention in Detroit set the tone for his campaign. The election looked close at Labor Day and even into October. But the single debate the two camps agreed to , held on Oct. 28, 1980, the week before the election, was a clear win for the challenger. Carter failed in his attempts to paint Reagan as an extremist. The Republican managed to be reassuring and upbeat even as he kept up his attacks on Carter's handling of the economy and on the rest of Carter's record. The polls broke sharply in the final days, and in November, Reagan captured nearly all the Southern states that Carter had carried four years earlier and won the 1980 presidential election with 489 Electoral College votes. Carter conceded before the polls had even closed on the West Coast. Reassessment in retrospect Historians have generally not rated Carter's presidency highly, and he left office with his Gallup poll approval rating in the low 30s. But there has been a steady upward trajectory in assessments of his presidency in recent years, and his Gallup approval rating has climbed back above 50% and has remained there among the public at large. This reflects the work of several Carter biographers and former aides and the natural comparison with the presidents who have followed him. In 2018, Stuart E. Eizenstat, Carter's chief domestic policy adviser, published President Carter: The White House Years , which historians have praised both as a primary source and as an assessment of Carter's term. In it, Eizenstat wrote that Carter "was not a great president, but he was a good and productive one. He delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office. He was a man of almost unyielding principle. Yet his greatest virtue was at once his most serious fault for a president in an American democracy of divided powers." As far back as 2000, historian Douglas Brinkley wrote that in the first 20 years after Carter lost the presidency, he had become "renowned the world over as the epitome of the caring, compassionate, best sort of American statesman ... an exemplar of behavior for all national leaders in retirement." A new life out of office But the greatest factor in Carter's rising reputation was his own performance in his post-presidential career. He worked with Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate homes for low-income families. He taught at Emory University and established his own nonprofit, the Carter Center . And over the ensuing decades, he published more than two dozen books and became an international advocate for peace, democratic reforms and humanitarian causes. As former president, Carter did not shy from controversy, particularly when it came to the Middle East, the region that gave him his greatest foreign policy achievement and also his most damaging setback as president. He opposed the Gulf War in 1991 and the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, and he angered many when he likened Israel's treatment of Palestinians to apartheid in South Africa. He also riled many Americans by suggesting that opposition to President Barack Obama was rooted in racism. More recently, he earned new admirers and detractors alike with his public disapproval of then-President Donald Trump.A turn away from the EU plunges Georgia into crisis T HE ECHOES seem obvious. A Kremlin-backed oligarch grabs power and breaks off the country’s relationship with the European Union, eliciting huge protests. Masked police beat up peaceful demonstrators, bringing more people onto the street. Such were the scenes during Kyiv’s Maidan revolution in 2013-14, which overthrew that country’s president and ultimately led to a Russian invasion. Discover more France’s government faces the imminent loss of a vote of confidence Michel Barnier, the prime minister, has failed to get his budget through parliament How Ukraine uses cheap AI-guided drones to deadly effect against Russia Ukraine is making tens of thousands of them Emmanuel Macron shows off the gloriously restored Notre Dame Five years after it was gutted by fire, the cathedral is more beautiful than ever Ursula von der Leyen has a new doctrine for handling the hard right The boss of the European Commission embarks on a second term Marine Le Pen spooks the bond markets She threatens to bring down the French government, but also faces a possible ban from politics The maths of Europe’s military black hole It needs to spend to defend, but voters may balkUpon Further Review: Tee Higgins, Bengals’ skill talent give Broncos preview of offseason to-do list
Jimmy Carter, America’s 39th president, dead at 100Launch Consulting Welcomes John Cipolla as President to Drive Innovation and Growth
The San Francisco 49ers lost running back Christian McCaffrey to what appears to be a season-ending knee injury during their 35-10 "Sunday Night Football" loss to the Buffalo Bills . He was placed on IR with a PCL sprain and is expected to miss at least six weeks of action. However, McCaffrey wasn't the only member of San Francisco's backfield to be hurt in the contest. McCaffrey's backup, Jordan Mason , suffered an ankle injury that is expected to land him on IR along with the All-Pro. Mason, 25, was a breakout star for the 49ers early in the season. He replaced McCaffrey as the team's bell-cow back and ran for 147 yards and a touchdown in the team's season-opening win against the New York Jets . Here's what to know about Mason's injury and how it will impact the 49ers' running back depth chart over the final five weeks of the 2024 NFL season. BILLS VS. 49ERS: Winners and losers from Buffalo's dominant 'SNF' victory NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more. Jordan Mason injury update 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan announced during a Monday news conference that Mason suffered a high-ankle sprain during San Francisco's Week 13 loss to Buffalo. It isn't clear exactly when the third-year running back was injured, but he is being placed on IR because of the sprain. As a result, Mason will be sidelined for at least four games. Just five games remain in the 2024 NFL season, so the earliest that Mason could return would be Week 18. If the 49ers fail to make the postseason, the team might decide not to bring Mason back at all and let him get healthy for the 2025 NFL season. At present, San Francisco is 5-7 and sitting in last place in the NFC West , two games behind the pole-sitting Seattle Seahawks . 49ers RB depth chart McCaffrey and Mason aren't the only 49ers running backs on IR. The team also lost Elijah Mitchell , who was expected to be McCaffrey's backup entering training camp, to a season-ending hamstring injury before the campaign began. As a result, the 49ers have only one healthy running back on their 53-man roster: rookie fourth-round pick Isaac Guerendo . They will likely elevate Patrick Taylor Jr. from the practice squad to help replace McCaffrey and Mason, but those are the only two healthy running backs presently in the team's organization. With that in mind, the 49ers will likely bring in another running back to provide depth behind the duo.
Efforts to develop Western Canada as an exporter of low-carbon ammonia to the Asia-Pacific region could run into similar challenges faced by the region’s LNG projects, which raises concerns about potential permitting, construction, transportation and cost hurdles, market sources said. Canada is developing several projects on both coasts to export hydrogen and derivatives like ammonia, which are viewed as potential low-carbon fuel supplies to Europe and Asia. Like its efforts with LNG and other energy-rich nations, Canada is leveraging hydrogen investment tax credits to advance these projects, aiming to finalize low-carbon trade flows. While the growing global LNG market presents an opportunity to displace coal consumption, supporters of low-carbon ammonia see it as an even cleaner alternative for its ability to facilitate overseas shipments of hydrogen, which emits no carbon when burned. A US-based renewable-derived ammonia developer told S&P Global Commodity Insights that while “hydrogen lacks this flexibility, ammonia offers it by integrating into existing systems. The focus on ammonia reflects pragmatism, given uncertainty over the establishment of hydrogen pipeline networks.” Alberta-based Hydrogen Canada Corp. plans to use abundant, low-cost natural gas as a business case to build and operate a 1 million mt/year carbon capture storage-derived “blue” ammonia facility and export infrastructure to serve Asian markets, targeting South Korea and Japan, it said on its website. Global chemicals company Linde is also planning a blue hydrogen facility in Alberta, Canada, expected to be completed by 2028, which will produce gas-fed hydrogen combined with CCS. This project has a long-term agreement to supply its clean hydrogen to Dow’s Fort Saskatchewan ethylene cracker and derivatives site Path2Zero. “A significant challenge is the domestic rail transportation from the Edmonton region to Prince Rupert,” a representative with the Canadian government told Commodity Insights. “Current Transport Canada regulations prohibit long-haul ammonia trains, and both industry and provincial governments in Alberta and British Columbia are working to address this issue.” On Canada’s West Coast, rail and insurance costs are significant challenges for ammonia export projects, said a low-carbon ammonia developer. Unless this ammonia rail liability/insurance discussion gets resolved, West Coast Canadian projects cannot physically deliver ammonia to South Korea, the Canadian government representative added. LNG Canada and Coastal GasLink faced similar challenges with respect to regulatory barriers, a Canada-based low-carbon hydrogen developer added. “Prince Rupert [Trigon Terminal] can handle ammonia. Again, the key issue is delivering the ammonia to the port from the production site,” the government representative said. Challenges previously encountered with LNG are now emerging as ammonia projects have begun to request environmental approvals, bid in auctions, and attempt to secure attractive offtakers. Canadian and global investors have faced difficulties in launching LNG projects on Canada’s West Coast, with several major LNG export projects having been canceled, stopped in court, or abandoned because of climate change disputes, pipeline issues, regulatory hurdles, and environmental concerns. “Regulatory constraints and access to First Nation land were also significant hurdles. To date, we’ve only had three Western Canada projects reach final investment decisions,” said Ross Wyeno, Commodity Insights’ director of global LNG analytics. While these project challenges are offset by a lower expected feedgas price and shorter distance to the Asia-Pacific markets, Wyeno added, “The Western Canadian LNG export projects are among the more expensive projects in the world due to the high cost of the long-haul pipelines required to feed the plant and the remote locations, which are difficult to build in and have limited access to labor.” Canadian projects on the West Coast and some projects in the Midwest US view this cost as competitive because of affordable feedstock natural gas, its economical shipping route to Asian markets, and saving it from passage through the Panama Canal. Platts assessed blue ammonia premium in the US Gulf Coast at $27.75/mt Nov 21, with an outright blue ammonia price at $527.50/mt, considering the premium and the US Gulf FOB assessment of $500/mt. The FOB US Gulf low-carbon ammonia price was assessed at $500/mt, considering a maximum carbon intensity of 0.87 kg CO2eq/kg ammonia under a well-to-gate boundary. Market participants have said projects on Canada’s West Coast are competitive with those on the US Gulf Coast, as they benefit from a shorter route to Asia and avoid the Panama Canal. Blue hydrogen and ammonia pricing from western Canada are largely influenced by rail insurance costs, the government representative said, adding, “While discussions are ongoing, the current domestic political climate, particularly with the upcoming Canada’s federal election, may impact the pace of progress.” Source: