nice88 free register
ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands (AP) — Javohn Garcia scored 16 points as McNeese beat Illinois State 76-68 on Friday. Garcia also contributed seven rebounds for the Cowboys (3-2). Brandon Murray shot 4 of 10 from the field and 5 for 7 from the line to add 13 points. Sincere Parker shot 4 for 8 (2 for 5 from 3-point range) and 3 of 4 from the free-throw line to finish with 13 points. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a week
What does Big Tech hope to gain from warming up to Trump?
Shares of SBC Medical Group Holdings Incorporated ( NASDAQ:SBC – Get Free Report ) shot up 4.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $5.62 and last traded at $5.62. 8,533 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 46,697 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.37. SBC Medical Group Stock Performance The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 2.79 and a quick ratio of 2.76. The business has a 50-day moving average of $6.59. SBC Medical Group Company Profile ( Get Free Report ) SBC Medical Group Holdings Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, provides services to support the operation of clinics which deliver specialized medical services in the areas of cosmetic medicine, esthetic dentistry and Androgenetic Alopecia or AGA, primarily in Japan and centered on the SBC Shonan Beauty Clinic Brand. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for SBC Medical Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for SBC Medical Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .
( MENAFN - Caribbean News Global) KINGSTON, Jamaica – Caribbean countries need to urgently address the growing challenge of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). NCDs account for over 75 percent of all deaths in the region, with devastating economic consequences, including productivity losses and unsustainable healthcare costs. This critical message was emphasized by health experts from the World bank and regional health organizations during a public discussion as part of the Ask WBG Series . In countries like Barbados and Jamaica, NCDs lead to losses equivalent to 5.34 percent and 5.87 percent of GDP, respectively. Jamaica alone has seen $17.2 billion in lost economic output over 15 years. Without targeted interventions, the region faces rising premature deaths -40 percent of NCD-related deaths occur before age 70 – and escalating healthcare expenditures. “The current losses to economies from health care costs and lost productivity is massive and projected to increase exponentially as our populations age. The future of health in the Caribbean must be one where we act decisively to address non-communicable diseases and protect our economies” said Lilia Burunciuc, World Bank's country director for the Caribbean. The discussion shed light on critical gaps in NCD policies, with Caribbean nations implementing less than 40 percent of recommended measures. Priority areas for improvement include increasing taxes on tobacco and alcohol, restricting unhealthy food marketing, and promoting physical activity. No Caribbean country currently meets the WHO-recommended 75 percent tax share on tobacco. Dr Edit Velenyi, World Bank's senior economist, highlighted that investments in NCD prevention yield high returns. In Jamaica, for every $1 spent on NCD prevention, $2.1 is gained in healthcare savings and productivity, with potential GDP savings of 4.3 percent and 5,700 lives saved over 15 years. Experts offered a set of policy recommendations: The panel speakers included Dr Shana Cyr-Philbert, senior medical officer, ministry of health, wellness, and elderly affairs, Saint Lucia; Dr Kenneth Connell, president of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition; and Dr Heather Armstrong, head of the NCDs Unit at The Caribbean Public Health Agency. These experts shared their valuable insights on tackling the pressing issue of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean. Recognizing the unique challenges of tackling NCDs in island nations, such as limited healthcare resources and geographic isolation, experts highlighted the critical role of innovative solutions in addressing these issues effectively. Innovations in technology, policy, and community-based approaches were emphasized as essential tools for overcoming these barriers. Experts also stressed that tackling the NCD challenge will require coordinated and collaborative efforts with partners and civil society organizations, not only at the national level but also across the entire region. The World Bank is working with the Caribbean governments to help countries address these challenges by focusing on areas such as improving health financing, enhancing health management information systems, strengthening care for non-communicable diseases, and boosting hospital sector performance. Through these efforts, the bank supports countries in their journey toward achieving universal health coverage and building resilient, efficient health systems tailored to the region's needs. The post NCDs account for between 1.4 – 8 percent of GDP loss in the Caribbean, says World Bank experts appeared first on Caribbean News Global . MENAFN17122024000232011072ID1109004889 Legal Disclaimer: MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court seemed likely Wednesday to uphold Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices' decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which restrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration's top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender health care for minors. Supporters of transgender rights rally Wednesday outside the Supreme Court in Washington. In arguments that lasted more than two hours, five of the six conservative justices voiced varying degrees of skepticism over arguments made by the administration and Chase Strangio, the ACLU lawyer for Tennessee families challenging the ban. Chief Justice John Roberts, who voted in the majority in a 2020 case in favor of transgender rights, questioned whether judges, rather than lawmakers, should weigh in on a question of regulating medical procedures, an area usually left to the states. "The Constitution leaves that question to the people's representatives, rather than to nine people, none of whom is a doctor," Roberts said in an exchange with Strangio. Justice Neil Gorsuch, who wrote the majority opinion in 2020, said nothing during the arguments. The court's three liberal justices seemed firmly on the side of the challengers, but it's not clear that any conservatives will go along. People attend a rally March 31, 2023, as part of a Transgender Day of Visibility, near the Capitol in Washington. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pushed back against the assertion that the democratic process would be the best way to address objections to the law. She cited a history of laws discriminating against others, noting that transgender people make up less than 1% of the U.S. population, according to studies. There are an estimated 1.3 million adults and 300,000 adolescents ages 13 to 17 who identify as transgender, according the UCLA law school's Williams Institute. "Blacks were a much larger part of the population and it didn't protect them. It didn't protect women for whole centuries," Sotomayor said in an exchange with Tennessee Solicitor General Matt Rice. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said she saw some troubling parallels between arguments made by Tennessee and those advanced by Virginia and rejected by a unanimous court, in the 1967 Loving decision that legalized interracial marriage nationwide. Quoting from that decision, Jackson noted that Virginia argued then that "the scientific evidence is substantially in doubt and, consequently, the court should defer to the wisdom of the state legislature." ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio, left, and plaintiff Joaquin Carcano address reporters after a June 25, 2018, hearing in Winston-Salem, N.C., on their lawsuit challenging the law that replaced North Carolina's "bathroom bill." Justice Samuel Alito repeatedly pressed Strangio, the first openly transgender lawyer to argue at the nation's highest court, about whether transgender people should be legally designated as a group that's susceptible to discrimination. Strangio answered that being transgender does fit that legal definition, though he acknowledged under Alito's questioning there are a small number of people who de-transition. "So it's not an immutable characteristic, is it?" Alito said. Strangio did not retreat from his view, though he said the court did not have to decide the issue to resolve the case in his clients' favor. There were dueling rallies outside the court in the hours before the arguments. Speeches and music filled the air on the sidewalk below the court's marble steps. Advocates of the ban bore signs like "Champion God's Design" and "Kids Health Matters," while the other side proclaimed "Fight like a Mother for Trans Rights" and "Freedom to be Ourselves." Four years ago, the court ruled in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired by a Michigan funeral home after she informed its owner she was a transgender woman. The court held that transgender people, as well as gay and lesbian people, are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace. The Biden administration and the families and health care providers who challenged the Tennessee law urged the justices to apply the same sort of analysis that the majority, made up of liberal and conservative justices, embraced in the case four years ago when it found that "sex plays an unmistakable role" in employers' decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate. Demonstrators against transgender rights protest Wednesday during a rally outside of the Supreme Court in Washington. The issue in the Tennessee case is whether the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment, which requires the government to treat similarly situated people the same. Tennessee's law bans puberty blockers and hormone treatments for transgender minors, but allows the same drugs to be used for other purposes. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, called the law sex-based line drawing to ban the use of drugs that have been safely prescribed for decades and said the state "decided to completely override the views of the patients, the parents, the doctors." She contrasted the Tennessee law with one enacted by West Virginia, which set conditions for the health care for transgender minors, but stopped short of an outright ban. Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.Northwestern St. 71, North Alabama 58
Heading into the all-important holiday months, budget-conscious Target customers shopped more but didn’t necessarily spend more. As a result, the retailer missed its sales and earnings expectations for the quarter that ended in October; profits declined 12 percent year over year to $854 million. Investors punished Target this week, tanking the company’s stock price. It was down 20 percent as of Wednesday. “We’re not pleased (with) where we are today, but we see a lot of green shoots and a lot of long-term opportunities to continue to advance our business,” CEO Brian Cornell told analysts Wednesday morning. Target has been slashing prices this year to claw back customers increasingly opting for Walmart or Amazon. “That’s driving traffic to our stores,” Cornell said during a call with media. “We feel really good about the reaction we’re currently getting.” The Minneapolis-based retailer saw a 2.4 percent bump in store traffic for the quarter that amounted to an extra 10 million transactions over the same quarter last year. But revenue has not seen a corresponding lift. Same-store sales were up just 0.3 percent over last quarter, missing analyst estimates. “We’re still seeing consumers shop very cautiously, and we’re planning accordingly,” Cornell said. Even with all those extra store visits — and a 10.8 percent increase in digital sales — discretionary spending on apparel, home goods and “hardline” items like appliances remained weak. Meanwhile, October’s Target Circle week was the best yet, with a notable sales bump and 3 million new members in the loyalty program. A Blake Lively team-up also represented “our biggest hair care launch on record,” said Rick Gomez, chief commercial officer at Target. Those bright spots, and strong beauty sales, partly offset what executives consider a short-term economic headwind. Alarm bells aren’t ringing on Nicollet Mall just yet. “We know over time those trends will reverse,” Cornell told analysts. “We’ll continue on our current strategy, stay in step with the consumer and make sure Target’s doing the things that consumers across America expect from us.” Yet Walmart, which reported strong results Tuesday, is attracting more high-income shoppers — normally Target’s bread and butter — contributing to a sizable increase in same-store sales year over year for the quarter. “There is a sense that Walmart is on the front foot at a time when Target is struggling to remain as relevant as it once was,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData. Edward Jones analyst Brian Yarbrough said Target is far more reliant on discretionary spending, which was also tepid at Walmart. “There’s definitely some economic headwinds. But when you look across the space, Walmart, Amazon and Costco are winning and the rest are, I don’t want to say a disaster, but underperforming,” Yarbrough said. “Target is losing market share.” Along with the revenue stagnation and profit decline, Target lowered its financial outlook for the rest of the year. One issue weighing on the bottom line: Target stocked up ahead of the short-lived East Coast port strikes, an expensive proposition. “Our team took decisive action to ... ensure we had inventory for the biggest season of the year,” Cornell said. “We don’t regret those actions.” Revenue reached $25.2 billion. The company now expects full-year earnings per share in the range of $8.30 to $8.90 after upping its forecast last quarter to $9 to $9.70. “It’s disappointing that a deceleration in discretionary demand, combined with some cost pressures, have caused us to take our guidance back down,” said Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke. Though Target expects a robust holiday shopping season, officials expect sales for the fourth quarter, which ends in January, will be flat compared with last year. “We’re guiding with some conservatism, hopefully there will be some upside as we get into the season,” Cornell said. “Some of the biggest days are still in front of us, obviously some big weeks ahead, and we’ll watch that carefully.”The Root’s Best of 2024: Our Picks for the Top Entertainers; Movies; TV Series; Breakout Artists; Music Performances of the Year
At least three killed in Netherlands apartment explosionWho’s to blame for climate change: Fossil fuel producers or purchasers?
LINCOLN — Young men, start your engines. Rev ‘em up, too. You’re the 2025 Nebraska football recruiting class — 20 strong — and probably should have been the story of NU’s Signing Day press conference. But you were at least the third story, and maybe fourth, behind the coaches who left, the ex-Huskers who hit the transfer portal and perhaps the players your school might take from the transfer portal. When you started high school, back in 2021, there was still some pageantry around this day, in late December though it may have been. Now, first week of December, you’re practically a doctor’s appointment squeezed into a Wednesday afternoon. You’re rookies in a sea of perpetual free agents. Most of you are enrolling early and that’s a good thing; the quicker you learn the playbook and hit the weight room, the better chance you’ll have to impress coaches. Coach Matt Rhule thinks you’ll succeed in that effort, as well. He likes you guys. For a couple of you, Dawson Merritt and Cortez Mills, he and his staff kept going back to the well again and again to flip you from Alabama and Oklahoma, respectively. How often does Nebraska beat those two schools for any recruit? This could be one of the strongest Husker recruiting classes in years. “We’ve got some guys who can come in and play early,” Rhule said, “because this class is going to have to come in and play early.” Hear that? He means it. Rhule has playing time to offer. For the 2025 team to win big, some of you have to step into major roles. On defense, so many seniors exhausted their eligibility, and so many other guys hit the transfer portal, that the coaches will be choosing between, say, sophomores, redshirt freshmen and, well, you. On offense, your coordinator is Dana Holgorsen, and he surely doesn’t care how old you are. At the skill spots, he’ll play whoever competes the best. Of course, he also said on NU’s in-house Signing Day special that he’s bringing “20 or 30” transfers in for visits and selecting the best from that pool. Maybe Holgo’s exaggerating. Do you want to test him? So you need to impress these guys. In an era of revenue sharing, NIL and unlimited transfers, you might get two spring camps to develop on a roster before you’re asked to be a key contributor. Three, maybe, if you’re a quarterback or a raw offensive tackle. After that, you’re a revenue-sharing dollar figure on a spreadsheet that might be replaced by another rookie — or transfer. Yeah, it is cutthroat. This isn’t 1986. Or even 2006, perhaps the golden age of the prep recruiting era, when the recruiting sites got big, the all-star games got max publicity, ESPN had a big blowout special in early February and drama practically dragged into the start of the next spring camp. It was hard to transfer back then even once, particularly if the coach wanted to block your release or you didn’t have a redshirt season to sit out one year of eligibility. In 2006, if seven guys left in December, before a bowl game, it was a mass exodus — cause for concern at the health of the program. In 2024, seven guys leaving is called “Monday and Tuesday.” And here you are in the midst of the chaos, not knowing for sure what the college football system will look like in 2025, much less 2027. You probably wouldn’t have teed it up this way. But here’s your swing. Over the next nine months, you’d be wise to make an impression. Good thing you can, Dawson Merritt. Nebraska needs a versatile edge rusher who can drop into coverage, and Princewill Umanmielen, athletic as he may be, did not quite develop into that guy before hitting the transfer portal. Ditto, Christian Jones. You looked the part at linebacker for years leading the state’s best defense, and Mikai Gbayor just hit the transfer portal. Can you step into a role quickly? Same for you, Jamarion Parker. At running back, you can turn an eight-yard run into an 80-yarder, and that’s a skill Nebraska sorely needs. Malcolm Simpson and Kade Pietrzak, you’ve seen this program is unafraid to plug a freshman defensive lineman into a game. Your frames seem sturdy enough to play. Cortez Mills and Isaiah Mozee, you’re four-star receivers who flashed electric run-after-the-catch skills in high school. Bring those to campus like Jacory Barney did, and you might play as much as Jacory Barney has. TJ Lateef, you’re a quarterback and may have to wait your turn behind Dylan Raiola, but you’ll likely be doing so as Raiola’s backup, given Rhule’s openness to moving Heinrich Haarberg to different spots. Some of you need time with the nutrition and weight staffs — 18-year-old tackles rarely walk into a program ready to block 23-year-olds — but those guys are the exception at every school. Most of you will play, or transfer, by this rule: When you’re getting compensated more than anyone 10 years ago could have imagined, the standards for keeping that salary rapidly change. You’re a recruiting class full of promise and opportunity. You’ll face a heap of the other thing, too, though. “There’s bunch of these guys we expect to play,” Rhule said. “You don’t want to put that on the guys until they get here, but I want them to have the expectation.” Even if you don’t, the coaches will.Nippon Steel eyes US Steel in overseas expansion
Safety Micah Hyde rejoins the Buffalo Bills after being signed to practice squadBoston Mayor Michelle Wu’s bullying tactics and dishonest botching of her commercial tax hike plan have backfired badly and the home rule petition is now in serious jeopardy. Wu’s administration deliberately withheld important information on the impact of the tax plan from city councilors and legislators, and the home rule petition is on hold in the state Senate while business leaders rethink their support. State Sen. Nick Collins and City Councilor Ed Flynn did the right thing in protecting commercial taxpayers, and in reaction Wu lobbed a weak bomb in the Boston Globe about Collins taking campaign money from developers. Wu also takes campaign donations from the same developers. You can’t conceal campaign contributions. Yes, Collins was an advocate for the business community and they supported him. So what? Instead Wu tries to smear him by planting a story about developer contributions, which Wu also accepts. Wu has lost a lot of credibility with taxpayers and business leaders on this botched deal, which is not insignificant. The deal went south because she wasn’t honest. It shows the arrogance of the mayor, who is known for pushing through her interests without much concern for the public process, smearing her opponents and then smiling while she lights the city Christmas tree. Her original deal with the business community to back the plan seemed like good politics at the time and a solid win for the first-term mayor. But now that it’s been revealed the impact on residential taxpayers won’t be as dire as Wu predicted, business leaders are revolting and thinking of withdrawing their support of the plan. How does the city’s assessing commissioner, Nicholas Arinello, who refused to divulge the annual tax spike for homeowners for next year in a hearing with the council, keep his job? Arinello should be canned immediately. The mayor, meanwhile, refuses to heed recommendations from her critics to cut the city’s $4.6 billion budget that grew 8% this fiscal year, and in fact keeps spending millions more on bike lanes, grants and climate initiatives. Commercial taxpayers dealing with a sagging real estate landscape are taking it on the chin already and would have the most to lose under Wu’s tax hike. Flynn was the only councilor to oppose the home rule petition on the initial vote, and was portrayed by Wu and critics as in the tank for business interests. Now Flynn and other Wu critics like Councilor Erin Murphy are looking good for demanding answers from the Wu administration before green-lighting the home rule petition. Flynn is calling for a new hearing based on the new information from the city. “I think city councilors might want to reevaluate their vote based on the new numbers we have, to do our due diligence and ask difficult questions of the city even when it’s politically incorrect,” Flynn said in an interview. It’s also a rare occasion when the Legislature is acting responsibly by slow-walking Wu’s plan and keeping it from getting broomed through. Murphy said Wu’s dishonesty “erodes trust in government” and noted that some city council members didn’t even show up for the hearing on the home rule petition. “There was definitely I believe (an attitude of) ‘let’s push this through’ before the numbers were actually shared,” she said.
Day one on the cruise ship Viking Jupiter in Buenos Aires and the atmosphere quivers with passion. Tango Cervila dance company has come on board. The music moans, high heels rattle the stage of the ship’s theatre, long legs extend from red dresses. I’m electrified out of my jet lag. A short pause, like the sigh of the unrequited, and then the audience stands to applaud. This is a worthy opener to a cruise from Buenos Aires around the toe of South America to Valparaiso in Chile. I’ll find abundant passion of all sorts on this cruise. Next day we meet our local guide Agostina, who is passionate about Argentine history. She’s a diminutive firecracker with an eyebrow ring; she rolls her Rs as if about to burst into song. Local colour in Beunos Aires. Down in La Boca district, she and other locals are obsessed with Argentinian football heroes. Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are plastered on T-shirts and fridge magnets, and depicted like church icons on building walls brightly painted in team colours. Next day, I discover Uruguayans are passionate about their version of carnival, and lose themselves in drumming and dancing. We’ve docked in Montevideo, a capital with character. The old town has down-at-heel Mediterranean squares and dusty bakeries, but its stirring statues of revolutionary generals are distinctively South American. Our guide Mirtha, whose husband is Australian, endearingly talks everything up in the habit of people from obscure countries. The Uruguayan carnival lasts longer than Brazil’s. The parliament building is a world wonder. That obelisk is beautiful! We Uruguayans are great at football! A statue of Uruguayan hero General Artigas in Plaza Independencia, Montevideo. Credit: Alamy Who doesn’t enjoy such passion? I feel I’m a convert to all things Uruguayan and, as we sail away and I tuck into a hearty Florentine steak in the ship’s Manfredi’s restaurant, I feel I must come back to Uruguay one day for more. This Viking cruise connects disparate places: big cities, windblown ports, isolated islands. It opens on the warm, sluggish, muddy River Plate but culminates in frozen Patagonia. It sails out into the Atlantic and finishes in the Pacific. I’ve been on many cruises, but none quite like this one for variety and unexpectedness. Buenos Aires was hot and steamy: buildings have sub-tropical stains, jacarandas flourish, lovers slump on park benches. But as Viking Jupiter slides southwards, the Argentine coast becomes dry and scrubby. The surrounds of Puerto Madryn could be South Australia if it weren’t for the snooty guanacos, and flamingos bent like question marks above small lagoons. It could equally be a flat Wales. In Puerto Madryn I encounter another unexpected passion on a shore excursion: locals fiercely proud of their Welsh immigrant heritage. But wistful, weary Argentina doesn’t really feel like anywhere else. It’s one of those one-of-a-kind places every traveller hopes for. Its capital has old-world glamour and dainty coffee shops, while its countryside celebrates macho cowboy culture and barbecues. Its people are proud and passionate and don’t forget their history. At every port, we’re fervently reminded that the Islas Malvinas, or Falkland Islands, ought to be Argentine. Monuments to dead soldiers sit on every windy waterfront like sore teeth the Argentines can’t help poking. I detect passion in the subjects of our onboard lectures: working-class heroine and president’s wife Eva Peron, legendary tango singer Carlos Gardel, former revolutionary and prisoner turned Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica. As we sail the Atlantic on a day at sea, guest Argentinian lecturer Kevin Saslavchik provides a balanced view of the 1982 Falklands War and its causes, in which he includes fascinating video clips including the opinions of a Falklands islander and an Argentine war veteran. And then we’re sailing into the Falkland Islands themselves. Low, scraped lumps of rock recede to high hills. We tender into Port Stanley past fishing ships: 50 per cent of Spain’s calamari comes from these waters. Gentoo penguins on the beach in the Falkland Islands. Credit: Getty Images Port Stanley is, much like everywhere else in the South Atlantic – eccentric. Locals celebrate a midwinter plunge into 5C water to get a Certificate of Lunacy signed by the governor. Red pillar post boxes are still stamped with George VI’s initials. Our guide Tim lost an eye when the RAF accidentally bombed his farmhouse. Local ladies sell jam made from red teaberries, and penguins waddle on the beaches. As we leave, two sea lions appear on the pier to bask in the sun. The light is beautiful as the ship sails, giving a glow to the low green vegetation, and a yellow sheen to the Falklands’ exposed rock, teasing out the beauty of this wild and grim place. Patagonia is nipping at my ears and sneaking under my jacket as I pace the deck on our way back to continental South America. Viking Jupiter’s relaxed spa – a retreat of style without fuss – is the place to warm up with a plunge into its Scandinavian-style hot tub or a session in its sauna. Then I flop into the warm-water swimming pool. South America ends in scoured rock and salty winds, snowy mountains and smelly sea lions. We dock in Ushuaia, where tours and restaurants and shops all market themselves as The End of the World. Buenos Aires is 3000 kilometres away, Antarctica 1000 kilometres, and a sky swollen with dark clouds presses down like a lid. Ushuaia – the southernmost city in Argentina. The scenery is Alaskan, but Ushuaia’s bright yellow church and red-roofed buildings might have been teleported from Mexico. The wind is on a mission to blow me into the harbour. I’m surprised to discover Ushuaia was established as a penal colony. A Viking guide takes us to the old prison, a grim, cramped and frigid place that must have seemed as remote as Port Arthur in Tasmania to its 19th-century inmates. Ushuaia is an unprepossessing town of ankle-breaking pavements, shabby buildings and an air of neglect, but it exhilarates me. The landscapes here have chilly passion. They can seduce you or, as they did to early European explorers, chew you up and spit you out. Viking Jupiter isn’t shaken by the Strait of Magellan nor the Chilean fjords. We glide through scenery of distant mountains, volcanoes like witch’s hats, glaciers like crumbled meringue. Seabirds gather like extras in a Hitchcock movie. I barely see a house, a boat, a sign of life. Only in the Australian outback have I seen such empty vastness. Even the ship’s officers come out on deck to stare, as if mesmerised. Valparaiso – a rickety madness of time-worn buildings. Distances are big, and this cruise has quite a few days at sea. The hours seem short, however. Viking is the thinking person’s cruise company. Bookshelves are well stocked with history and travel books, and every ship hosts a resident historian. Ours is Geoff Peters, formerly of the Royal Australian Navy, who covers local history and maritime exploits and engages guest in Q&A sessions. Guests scurry from wildlife watching to astronomy lectures, mahjong competitions to afternoon tea in the Wintergarden. One day at the Pool Grill, waiters serve churrascaria-style grilled meat as a band plays. Chile feels different from Argentina. Punta Arenas, Ushuaia’s rival, is more polished. The tour coaches are better, the sights more tourist-trim. The town centre is full of weatherbeaten old mansions built on the wool and gold booms of the 19th century. I hike into Magellan’s Strait Park with enthusiastic guide Bartolo. His passion is for birds and endemic plants, and such is his enthusiasm that I find myself becoming entranced by meadowlarks and lichens amid the outsized scenery. Our final port, Valparaiso, in contrast to Punta Arenas, is a rickety madness of time-worn buildings, street markets and graffitied neighbourhoods that cling to steep hillsides. There’s no city planning at all, observes our local Viking guide Ervands with a chuckle, as if he approves. But who cares? Valparaiso too has passion. You can see it in the explosion of street art, the wanton bougainvillaea, the blaring music and mad clamour in every plaza. This is a city unlike any of the others we’ve visited: a suitable end to a cruise for those who think they’ve seen it all. THE DETAILS Viking Jupiter at sea. CRUISE Viking Cruises’ 18-day South America & Chilean Fjords cruise between Buenos Aires and Santiago (Valparaiso) visits Argentina, Uruguay, the Falkland Islands and Chile, and sails iconic maritime destinations such as the Beagle Channel, Cape Horn and the Strait of Magellan. BOOK There are eight departures between November 2024 and March 2025, from $9995 a person including accommodation, all meals and meal-time drinks, Wi-Fi, gratuities and a complimentary shore excursion in each port. See vikingcruises.com.au MORE argentina.travel uruguaynatural.com falklandislands.com chile.travel The writer was a guest of Viking Cruises.
Global Adult Day Care Market To Reach $21.87 Billion By 2028 With A Growth Rate Of 6.6%