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pz88 Ketron Shaw scores 30 to lead Maryland Eastern Shore over Bryn Athyn 91-65

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday offered a public show of support for Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice to lead the Defense Department, whose confirmation by the Senate is in doubt as he faces questions over allegations of excessive drinking, sexual assault and his views on women in combat. Hegseth, a former Fox News Host, Army National Guard major and combat veteran, spent much of the week on Capitol Hill trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination and privately reassure Republican senators that he is fit to lead Trump’s Pentagon. “Pete Hegseth is doing very well,” Trump posted on his social media site. “He will be a fantastic, high energy, Secretary of Defense." The president added that "Pete is a WINNER, and there is nothing that can be done to change that!!!” The pitched nomination battle over Hegseth is emerging as not only as a debate about the best person to lead the Pentagon, but an inflection point for a MAGA movement that appears to be relishing a public fight over its hardline push for a more masculine military and an end to the “woke-ism" of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. Trump’s allies are forcefully rallying around the embattled Hegseth – the Heritage Foundation’s political arm is promising to spend $1 million to shore up his nomination – as he vows to stay in the fight, as long as the president-elect wants him to. “We’re going to earn those votes,” Hegseth said on Capitol Hill this week. “As long as Donald Trump wants me in this fight, I’m going to be standing right here.” The effort quickly become a test of Trump’s clout and of how far loyalty for the president-elect goes with Republican senators who have concerns about his nominees. Two of Trump's other choices have stepped aside as they faced intense scrutiny: former congressman Matt Gaetz , his first choice for attorney general; and Chad Chronister, a Florida sheriff who was Trump’s first choice to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration. The president's son Donald J. Trump Jr., also made a show of support for Hegseth on Friday, part of a full-court MAGA press. “If you’re a GOP Senator who voted for Lloyd Austin, but criticize @PeteHegseth, then maybe you’re in the wrong political party!” he wrote on X. referring to Biden's defense secretary. Hegseth has promised not to drink on the job and told lawmakers he never engaged in sexual misconduct, even as his professional views on female troops have also come under intensifying scrutiny. He said as recently as last month that women “straight up” should not serve in combat . He picked up one important endorsement from Republican Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama, whose support was seen as a potentially powerful counterweight to the cooler reception Hegseth had received from Sen. Joni Ernst , herself a former Army National Guard lieutenant colonel. “Huge. Thanks to Katie for her leadership,” Vice President-elect JD Vance posted on social media. Ernst, who is also a sexual assault survivor, stopped short of an endorsement after her meeting with Hegseth this week. She said she appreciates his military service and they “had a frank and thorough conversation.” On Friday, Trump put out the statement in response to coverage saying he had lost faith in Hegseth, according to a person familiar with his thinking who was not authorized to discuss it publicly. The president-elect and his team have been pleased to see Hegseth putting up a fight and his performance this week reiterates why he was chosen, the person said. They believe he can still be confirmed. If Hegseth goes down, Trump's team believes the defeat would empower others to spread what they cast as “vicious lies” against every candidate Trump chooses. Still, Trump's transition team has been looking at potential replacements if Hegseth's nomination cannot move forward, including former presidential rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis . DeSantis plans to attend the Army-Navy football game with Trump on Dec. 14, according to a person familiar with the Florida governor’s plans who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss them before a public announcement. And DeSantis and Trump had spoken about the defense secretary post when they saw each other Tuesday at a memorial service for sheriff deputies in West Palm Beach, Florida, according people familiar with the matter who said Trump was interested in DeSantis for the post, and the governor was receptive. At the same time, DeSantis also is poised to select a replacement for the expected Senate vacancy to be created by Marco Rubio becoming secretary of state, and Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump is seen as the preferred choice by those in Trump’s orbit. Despite a weeklong push of private Capitol Hill meetings, Hegseth is facing resistance from senators as reports have emerged about his past, including the revelation that he made a settlement payment after being accused of a sexual assault that he denies. The New Yorker cited what it described as a whistleblower report and other documents about his time leading a veterans advocacy group, Concerned Veterans for America, that alleged multiple incidents of alcohol intoxication at work events, inappropriate behavior around female staffers and financial mismanagement. The New York Times obtained an email from his mother Penelope from 2018, in which she confronted him about mistreating women after he impregnated his current wife while he was married to his second wife. She went on “Fox & Friends” this week to defend her son. Trump ally Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said senators are judging “Pete for who he is today.” In many ways the increasingly pitched battle resembles the political and culture wars that exploded over Trump’s pick of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court during his first term at the White House. Kavanaugh had also faced allegations of sexual assault that he strenuously denied, but Republicans rallied to his side and turned a tide of opposition into a more sympathetic view of the Supreme Court nominee as the victim of a liberal-led smear campaign. He eventually won confirmation. While Hegseth was still fighting for votes in the Senate, he did appear to make incremental progress with some Republicans who had expressed concerns about the reports of his drinking, in particular. “I’m not going to make any decision regarding Pete Hegseth’s nomination based on anonymous sources,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said of the allegations against Hegseth, “I have no reason to doubt him any more than believe somebody else.” Still, Cramer indicated he could still change his mind. A background check “will be informative.” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said after meeting with Hegseth that he wanted to see how he does in a hearing but “he went a long way” toward getting his support. Colvin reported from New York. Associated Press writers Michelle L. Price in New York, Adriana Gomez Licon in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking and Lisa Mascaro in Washington contributed to this report.Lisa Vanderpump Throws an Epic Grand Opening Party For Pinky’s by Vanderpump at Flamingo Las Vegas

In Adam J. Graves and Suchitra Mattai’s Anuja , resilience in the face of hardship is the central heartbeat. The short film, doubling as both a heartwarming tribute to sisterhood and as a social awareness campaign about the effects of unchecked child labor, focuses on Anuja (Sajda Pathan), a young girl who lives with her older sister, Palak (Ananya Shanbhag), in Delhi, India as they live in poverty working long hours at a garment factory. One day, when a social worker (Gulshan Walia) arrives at the factory to expose the overseer for working Anuja illegally, he proposes that the youngster take part in an exam that will get her into a boarding school to better her chances of escaping her station. The two sisters are then tasked to raise money for the participation fee while Anuja decides the fate of her future. Fresh off of Academy Award voting precursor wins for best live-action short at the HollyShorts Film Festival in Los Angeles and the grand prize winner at the New York International Short Film Festival, the short film has also garnered support from Indian filmmakers Mindy Kaling and Guneet Monga Kapoor . Below, Graves talks to Deadline about his inspirations, working with young actors and raising awareness about the plights of child labor. DEADLINE : You have a varied background, from your PhD in philosophy to your various studies within South Asian culture and language. You also are a teacher. I’m curious how your expertise helped shape you as a filmmaker and come up with the origins of Anuja. ADAM J. GRAVES: I did my undergraduate degree in South Asian studies and wrote a master’s thesis on Abhinavagupta, the 12th-century Kashmir Shaivism philosopher who wrote in the domain of Indian Hindu philosophy known as Tantra. But it’s not [the same as the] new age Tantrism today. His work had very little to do with that. I spent about five or six years of my life going back and forth between India and I studied at Banaras Hindu University. I was always fascinated with Indian culture and literature, especially philosophy. And so, I knew that I wanted to film in India. It’s such a visually beautiful place. The energy and the culture are so rich. My wife is of South Asian descent. She played a large role in shaping this project and inspiring it, quite frankly. Her family’s history is rather complicated. Her ancestors go back to a place called Gorakhpur in northern India. They were brought by the British to Guyana as indentured laborers after the British abolished slavery. They turned to indentured servitude, and because of that family history, we’ve always been interested and concerned with labor issues. So that was the origins of the project, just bringing these two things together, wanting to shoot in India, and also having a concern with labor issues. And we were coming out of the pandemic, and everybody was talking about supply chains. But they were talking about the consumer end of supply chains. And we’re like, “Well, what’s happening on the other end? Not just here, but what’s going on where in terms of the production?” We came across a statistic that one in 10 kids, globally, is engaged in child labor, which was shocking to us because that seemed like an incredibly high number, 160 million kids. And we thought, “Well, how many films, really, can we think of off the top of our head that deal with those kids or with kids living in that context?” And we couldn’t think of that many. So, we thought this would be an interesting way to anchor the story. Let me just say that I feel that it’s an incredible privilege to be able to make film. And if you can, if you have the opportunity, then why not use the lens as a window that you can provide people into another world and provide people an experience that will allow them to empathize with people who don’t maybe have it as well off as some of us. Principally, I feel a film has to be a work of art that speaks to some of the universal aspects of human existence. DEADLINE : While your short film does examine the life of child labor, it also has levity and this balance between resilience and joy amongst the struggle. Anuja has her sister and even strangers who care about her future and safety. Why was it important to add this layer to the film? GRAVES: Two things happened. One, while we were doing research for the film and we were meeting with the children who were either working or formally working, it was just so evident to us, early on, that we had to pay tribute to the joy that these kids were able to find in really difficult circumstances. The kind of energy, creativity, and resilience was palpable when we met with these kids, so we wanted to make sure that we built that into the film and become part of the story. It wasn’t just a doom and gloom story about kids who had it tough, but it was also a story that highlights the resilience and the spirit of these children. Secondly, we wanted to make sure the film was something these kids would enjoy. I mean, they kind of became the audience for us as we were kind of crafting this story. We wanted to make sure that it wasn’t just going to be a film. We knew that we were going to share it with them. And we want it to be a gift to them in some way, something that they would watch and enjoy. And that meant it had to be more than just a dark, dramatic portrait of life in a factory. DEADLINE : You worked with Salaam Baalak Trust, which is also where you ended up finding the lead actress. What was the collaboration process like? GRAVES: It developed organically while we were researching. We were working with a number of nonprofits actually in and around Delhi. And the Salaam Baalak Trust’s mission seemed to resonate with what we were trying to do with the film. I think that has to do with the fact that it’s a nonprofit founded by the director Mira Nair’s family. Mira Nair is a towering figure in global cinema. She’s of Indian origin, but she’s lived in Uganda, New York, and everywhere else. So, I don’t want to say she’s an Indian filmmaker because she’s a person of the world. But she made a movie, Salaam Bombay! , about street children in Bombay, in what is now Mumbai. And after her mother saw the film, she was inspired to start a nonprofit. So, with the help of Mira, they established this organization that provides a home and educational opportunities for street children. Maybe I’m speculating, but I think because a film inspired this nonprofit, that organization recognized that art, especially performing arts, can be a really important vehicle for cultivating a kid’s sense of self-worth and confidence. So, they have a really robust theater program within this orphanage. So, when we were developing the film, they understood right away what we were trying to do. On the other hand, some of the other organizations thought we were trying to make a documentary about them. And because they have a theater program, they had a lot of kids who they wanted to submit. We felt early on that, “OK, we have to try. We know it’s going to be difficult, but we have to try to cast directly from the community.” Then the Salaam Baalak Trust was an organization that was open. Their kids were excited to be featured in a film. So, when we were casting, we looked at self-tapes from all over India, especially a lot from Mumbai and the film industry, kids who already had a film background. But we also received a lot from the Salaam Baalak Trust and from a couple of other nonprofits. They’re also located in the Paharganj, one of two neighborhoods that are up against each other in Old Delhi. I knew I wanted to film there, and one of the factories we filmed was just north of there. The movie theater we wanted to film in was north of there as well. They helped us with everything from locations to research. Ideally, we want to use the film as a tool to raise awareness about child labor, but also, hopefully, gets money for the Salaam Baalak Trust. They do great work. DEADLINE : Talk about casting Sajda Pathan and Ananya Shanbhag as sisters. They are so great onscreen. GRAVES: We were so lucky, Sajda. She lives at the Salaam Baalak Trust. But just not long before she was in the film, less than a year before, she was living on the streets with her older sister. She acted before she was cast in Anuja , so I can’t take credit for having discovered her or anything, but her own life experience parallels in really interesting ways that of the character of the film. And that’s pure accident. We didn’t write the script for her. But she was living without parental support on the streets and had an older sister. So, I think partly because she has an older sister, she could connect with Ananya. Ananya has a younger sibling, so when they met, they just immediately clicked. We didn’t do much in the way of rehearsals because, in my very limited experience working with child actors, sometimes the more you rehearse, the less life there is in the performance. And I think that can be true for children actors or adult actors. So, what we did is we tried to get them together. We all stayed in a hotel together, like a motel/hotel down in Paharganj and in close quarters. Sajda was staying with a social worker, and Ananya had her father along on set. We spent every moment of the day together for about three days before we started shooting. We played games, we had ice cream, and we had fun. They enjoyed each other’s company, and just very quickly became super tight. And you could see that. DEADLINE : Mindy Kaling and Guneet Monga Kapoor joined as producers on Anuja . That must have been very affirming. What do you think people are resonating with? GRAVES: These are two of my favorite people in the world, not just because they’re on board. We’ve specifically pursued them because [of what] we saw in them, their own causes, and the kinds of work they do. So, Guneet, for example, The Lunchbox is one of my favorite all-time films, an early feature film she’d worked on. And, of course, The Elephant Whisperers ... she consistently makes incredible work. It meant a lot to us to have such a towering figure within Indian cinema endorse the film and come on board and get behind it. Mindy herself has done so much for raising awareness of and foregrounding stories of women and girls. She’s also a towering figure, not just in the entertainment arts industry world but also among the Indian diaspora community. And so having her vouch for the film and having it resonate with her so much is really important. I think the thing that’s incredibly satisfying for every filmmaker who finds an audience is the sense that it somehow captures something universal, so you don’t have to come from this background to somehow be inspired by it or recognize yourself in it. We were trying to capture something about the universal features of childhood, and I think that’s one of the things that Mindy saw there, and that’s really heartwarming for us to have her on board. So, we’re super flattered, honored, and excited to see where it goes from here. DEADLINE : You’re in the conversation for the Oscars. What’s going through your mind, and what would you like people to consider? GRAVES: The two leads of the film, Sajda and Ananya, are the heart and soul of this project. I think anybody who watches films knows. Our cinematographer, Akash Raje, is incredible. I’m proud of all aspects of the film. But the heart and soul are these two incredibly gifted young actresses who gave us everything they got. And I’m just so proud of the fact that their performances are finally getting an audience, and they’re being seen. And my dream—and this is the thing that I try not to fantasize too much about—is to bring Sajda to the Oscars. I’ll tell you a silly story. When I was flying over for production, I was in LAX. I wanted to bring something for Sajda, a gift for the two actresses. But I was sick right before the trip, so I didn’t have much chance to shop. So, when I got to the airport, I wanted to bring them something from America that would be more interesting to them instead of picking something up at the Indian airport. I went into the gift shop and found a hat and sweater for Ananya, but they didn’t have anything in Sajda’s size because she’s so small. So, I found this Oscar replica statue. Of course, she had no idea what it was at the time when I gave it to her, so we had to explain it to her. But before we shot the film, I have a photo of her with this plastic Oscar, and the fact that we are now in this position talking about the real Oscar is really surreal. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity]

2025 Mazda 2 and CX-3 score safety and tech boostThe Witcher I was surprised to see The Witcher 4 open this year’s Game Awards ceremony. The trailer for the upcoming game from Polish studio CD Projekt Red was both unexpected and exciting. But I admit to having some mixed feelings about several aspects of the trailer and the implications of Ciri as the next game’s protagonist. Indeed, Ciri will be the protagonist of the next three games, starring in her very own trilogy. First, there’s the bizarre new look for the character. She just doesn’t look at all like Ciri from The Witcher 3. It’s not just that she’s older. Her entire bone structure has changed. Her face looks different and her voice has changed far more than mere aging would dictate. (While Doug Cockle returns as the voice of Geralt, Jo Wyatt is not returning as Ciri—more’s the pity). So while I think she still looks fine and sounds fine, it’s a radical and jarring enough transformation that if I didn’t have the scar to go by, I wouldn’t know she was the same character at all. This brings up perhaps an even more important issue with The Witcher 4. Should Ciri even be the main playable character in a series about Witchers? There’s much debate over whether she is or isn’t an actual Witcher, for one thing. Following the release of the trailer, however, CDPR confirmed that in this version of the story Ciri has taken Trial of Grasses , giving her the mutations necessary to drink potions and have her eyes change like that. It’s possible she went to a different school than Geralt (Wolf) such as the school of the Lynx. Frankly, I’m okay with Ciri having somehow become a full-blown Witcher even if it breaks lore, because I can accept the games are and always have been different from the books. But what does this mean for Ciri’s own magical powers? She has the Elder Blood in her, which is one reason she couldn’t take the Trials (the other being she’s a woman, and Witchers are always men). Has she lost her powers? The trailer indicates that she has at least some of them, but surely this also shows us a huge downgrade from where she was at the end of The Witcher 3. A Ciri game where she traveled through space and time, had teleportation powers and other abilities, could be really cool on its own, but it wouldn’t really be a game about a monster-hunting mutant Witcher, either. Microsoft Warns 400 Million Windows Users—Do Not Update Your PC ‘Black Doves’ Dethroned In Netflix’s Top 10 List By A New Show Google’s Security Nightmare—Just 14 Days To Change Your Phone What I’ve been hoping for since The Witcher 2 was a fully customizable Witcher that players could build from the ground up. Again, I’d be more than happy to bend lore and make this a male or female character that players could choose and then customize the appearance, voice, etc. This would add greatly to our roleplaying options. That being said, CDPR seems to realize that players want room to shape their own character, and since Ciri is at the start of her Witcher journey—as opposed to Geralt, who was already a veteran monster hunter—players will have “more opportunities to be able to feel that they define their experience.” The other issue with having Ciri as the protagonist is the timeline. A lot of people were hoping for a new timeline entirely, set either much earlier or later than Geralt’s story. (And some gamers were just upset Geralt wasn’t the lead, but his story was told and CDPR has said for years that he wasn’t returning as the hero). Still, when all is said and done I really like Ciri as a character and I think this could be a great game. The trailer is dark and exciting, and even though that last line—“There are no gods here, only monsters”—is super derivative of the debut Witcher 3 trailer—“What are you doing? “Killing monsters”—it nevertheless has me excited to play. Sometime in 2028 or whenever it finally releases. P.S. People have noted that Geralt in this cinematic trailer didn’t look exactly like Geralt in The Witcher 3, so it’s possible Ciri will follow suit. I don’t think this is a very good argument. For one thing, he looked pretty close. For another, you only barely see his face the entire time, whereas you see lots and lots of Ciri’s in The Witcher 4 trailer. The other argument I’ve heard about appearances is that Geralt also changed from game to game. This is certainly true: The Witcher But this was also done because A) technology changed radically between each game, and CDPR’s budget and experience grew along with it and B) they made Geralt look more attractive with each game. I don’t think they’ve made Ciri look more attractive or higher fidelity. She just looks different. Almost unrecognizably different. I think a bit of skepticism is warranted in this day and age of video games and the oft-strange choices developers have been making. Compound that with CDPR’s failed launch of Cyberpunk 2077 and I’d say it makes sense to be cautious. All that being said, I’m still cautiously optimistic. Whatever changes have occurred at the studio, CDPR’s track record is still mostly great and this remains one of my favorite fantasy universes. If nothing else, this trailer has made me want to fire up The Witcher 3 again. Of course, if CDPR screws up again gamers might not be so lenient. As Geralt once said: “You’d better pay up, or the invisible hand of the market will smack you so hard you won’t sit down for a week.”

GTWI Agrees to Provide GME Hydro LP its Patented Natural Gas to Hydrogen Conversion Process ARLINGTON, Texas, Dec. 16, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Greenway Technologies, Inc. (OTCPINKSHEETS: GWTI), (“Greenway”), is an advanced gas-to-liquids (“GTL”) and gas-to-hydrogen (“GTH”) technology development company. On October 13, 2023, GME Hydro LP (“GME”) and Greenway signed a non-binding letter of intent (“LOI”) under which GME would purchase two patented GWTI H-Reformer units (“H-Reformers ”). The H-Reformers would be used to convert natural gas (CH ) to hydrogen (H ) for use in electrical power generation. In conjunction with the execution of the agreement, GME committed to make an investment in GWTI via the purchase of restricted stock. Since that time, GME and Greenway (the Parties”) have worked together to develop a definitive agreement to effectuate the terms of the October 13, 2023 LOI. To reaffirm the commitment of the Parties, a new LOI dated December 12, 2024, was executed. Greenway’s two H-Reformer units will be configured to produce a daily total of up to 20,000 KG of hydrogen that will fuel reciprocating generators, which are components of a larger power generation system, in quantities sufficient to generate 10 MW of electricity. Greenway’s H-Reformer units are scalable to meet small and large hydrogen production specifications by adjusting the unit output production configuration or by “stacking” multiple units. GME will purchase, install, and operate the two H-Reformer units at its Johnstown, PA facility, (or at a site to be determined) where the locations would have access to on-site fossil and renewable natural gas. By combining incoming fossil natural gas with 25% renewable natural gas, the project should be eligible for Federal Clean Air H Credits. GME will fully optimize Greenway’s proprietary technology to achieve its goal of a low-cost, on-site clean hydrogen production solution with very low atmospheric carbon, as H-ReformerTM units are compatible with processes that separate carbon from its only hydrogen production bi-product, CO . The valuable liquified carbon will be sold to provide additional revenue and offset operating costs. In a statement, , President of GWTI, said, “Hydrogen shows great promise as a fuel but has been prevented from widespread use due to the prohibitively high price of transportation, whether it be by truck, rail, or an extremely limited pipeline infrastructure. Because natural gas is abundantly available at numerous locations, the winning hydrogen solution was always going to be one that could perform the hydrogen creation at the final site where it is used without carbon generation into the atmosphere. Additionally, other hydrogen-creation processes are either non-scalable, carbon-generating, or too expensive to be practical. The world can truly see the first step in widespread hydrogen production and use, whether it be for power generation, automobile, truck or train fueling stations, or other applications in a small, clean, and previously unimagined price at virtually anywhere there is a natural gas supply. went on to say “Research has begun on converting methane produced by municipal waste dumps into hydrogen to fuel additional electrical generation equipment. In addition, GME Hydro and GWTI have been investigating the use of GWTI’s other technology, the G-Reformer . By using this technology in conjunction with their projects, the G-Reformer units can be configured to create synthetic diesel blend stock and associated liquid chemicals. Finally, GME Hydro and GWTI are investigating using the G-Reformer to create methanol, a liquid fuel, in those areas where removal of the created offtake is more easily accomplished as a single liquid”. Methanol is emerging as a clean burning hydrocarbon fuel which has substantial value if created in a low-carbon emitting process. Methanol created using renewable methane is in large demand at premium prices due to worldwide interest in lower carbon standards.” the latest news shaping the hydrogen market at GTWI Agrees to Provide GME Hydro LP its Patented Natural Gas to Hydrogen Conversion Process, The (future) HTNOs take a Step Further Towards the Establishment of ENNOH – EU hydrogen transmission network operators A voluntary cooperative structure to start working on ENNOH’s deliverables (Brussels, 11... IGI Poseidon and Tenaris partner to advance offshore hydrogen readiness Tenaris and IGI Poseidon, a joint venture between Greece’s DEPA International Projects and Italy’s Edison S.p.A., have joined forces to advance the... Switzerland – The Federal Council presents the national hydrogen strategy Bern, December 13, 2024 – The Federal Council adopted the national hydrogen strategy at its meeting on December 13, 2024. It contains...