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Last Mile Delivery Market in North America to Grow by USD 18.78 Billion (2024-2028), Driven by US B2C E-Commerce and AI-Powered Market Evolution - TechnavioMany stocks performed well in 2024, but none better than those powered by artificial intelligence (AI). The technology fueled the bull market this year, with a few dozen stocks powering the S&P 500 ( ^GSPC -1.11% ) to a roughly 27.5% gain (as of Dec. 26). After such a phenomenal run, many popular AI names are expensive, with investors betting that these companies continue to grow at high rates and that their markets only get bigger. A good AI play trading at a reasonable multiple is a rarity these days. However, just a few weeks ago, a new AI stock joined the Nasdaq and could become a Wall Street darling in 2025. Better yet, it doesn't trade at an astronomic valuation. Back in the mix AI infrastructure company Nebius Group ( NBIS -3.46% ) got back in the mix a few months ago when the company rejoined the Nasdaq exchange after a three-year hiatus. The Russian company Yandex previously owned Nebius. After Russia invaded Ukraine, the U.S. imposed sanctions on companies linked to Russia. However, earlier this year, Yandex split off its international assets in a $5.4 billion deal. Four AI businesses split off from Yandex and into the Amsterdam-based Nebius company, including cloud, data labeling, edtech, and autonomous vehicles. Nebius essentially offers AI-as-a-service, providing companies and developers building AI models with access to graphics processing unit (GPU) clusters and a cloud platform. AI is expensive to build internally, but is becoming a technology that most businesses can't ignore if they want to stay relative. For instance, ServiceNow used Nebius to increase throughput on their conversational chatbot from 400 evaluation tasks per week to as many as 3,000 tasks a day. Nebius got a huge endorsement when it closed a $700 million private financing that included the large venture capital firm Accel and AI chip king Nvidia . Nebius has a special partnership with Nvidia, and its website says its customers will be the first to access Nvidia's new Blackwell chips. There has already been some excitement about the stock. Nebius came back onto the Nasdaq at $20 in late October, and shares are up over 41% since. Becoming the next AI darling Nebius got another big endorsement from Citron Research's Andrew Left, who said Wall Street has yet to catch on to Nebius' appeal. No analysts cover the stock, which isn't a huge surprise because it only returned to the Nasdaq a few months ago, and it can take analysts a long time to create and publish an initiation report. The company's financials are attractive. In its most recent quarter, Nebius grew revenue by 766% year over year and trimmed its losses by 45%. Nebius also has nearly $2.3 billion of cash and cash equivalents and very little debt. The company is investing $1 billion in GPU clusters in Paris and also doing a major expansion to its data center in Finland. Management expects the company's annualized revenue run rate to increase to the range of $750 million to $1 billion by the end of 2025. Nvidia shares trade at 47 times forward earnings , which isn't exactly unique in AI these days. While Nebius isn't a competitor and leverages Nvidia's chips, the company is expected to turn profitable next year and trades below 8 times forward earnings. Considering the projected growth of revenue and earnings and its growing market, this is a bargain. Left compares Nebius to Coreweave , a similar AI infrastructure company rumored to soon go public at a $35 billion valuation. Nebius has a roughly $6.7 billion market cap right now. The official announcement of Coreweave's IPO and ensuing registration statement could help better define the market for Nebius. Nebius is also likely still tricky for investors due to geopolitical events in recent years and its ties to Russia. However, investments from Accel and Nvidia are an important sign of legitimacy, and it's hard to find a quality name like Nebius trading at valuations this low.
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The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion. Israel has faced growing international criticism over its conduct in Gaza as it fights Hamas militants, especially when it comes to humanitarian aid for desperate people in the besieged and heavily destroyed territory. Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza killed at least 33 people overnight and into Wednesday, Palestinian medical officials said. Hospital records show one Israeli strike in northern Gaza killed 19 people in a home, including a family of eight — four children, their parents and two grandparents. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital, part of a blistering offensive in Gaza’s isolated and heavily destroyed north . The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Here's the latest: JERUSALEM — Israeli hospital officials say a young boy is fighting for his life after a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late Wednesday, the military said, and Israeli forces are searching for the shooter. Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem says at least three people were wounded in the shooting, which took place just outside the city in an area near major Israeli settlements. The hospital says the boy, who is about 10, is in grave condition. It says two other people, ages 24 and 55, were also hurt. UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban . The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions to support the agency known as UNRWA. The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group . General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly. Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions. BEIRUT — Israeli forces withdrew from a strategic town in southern Lebanon and handed it back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, the two militaries said Wednesday, marking an important test of the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants. It appeared to be Israel's first pullout from a Lebanese border town captured during this fall’s ground invasion, and comes as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire. The Lebanese army said Wednesday it has deployed units to five positions around the town of Khiam coinciding with the Israeli army’s withdrawal. Israel's military confirmed this was the first town it has turned over to the Lebanese army under the truce, which — if it endures — would end nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. The Lebanese army warned civilians to stay out of Khiam until it can clear the area of any unexploded munitions. The strategic hilltop town, located less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war. Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war returned home two weeks ago after a ceasefire took hold , driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to avoid some areas. WASHINGTON — All Russian naval ships that were docked at the Syrian port of Tartus have left and it appears Moscow is now looking for a new base along the coast now that its key ally, Bashar Assad, has been ousted a ruler of Syria, a U.S. official said. It’s not clear where the ships will go, but Russia may seek a new port on the Mediterranean Sea along the African shoreline, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. assessments. The official did not say how many vessels Russia had in Syria at the time Assad was overthrown. Moscow has dedicated the bulk of its military assets to the war in Ukraine. Asked about Tartus on Wednesday, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said that the U.S. is seeing some Russian forces and naval vessels leaving Syria. “They just had one of their key political allies, ousted,” said Singh. “We’re seeing Russia consolidate assets.” — By Lolita C. Baldor UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians are urging United Nations member countries to vote in favor of resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and supporting the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, which Israel has moved to ban in Palestinian territories. The Palestinian mission to the United Nations issued the urgent appeal to the 193 U.N. member nations ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s votes on the resolutions in the General Assembly, whose members have has been listening to two days of speeches overwhelmingly supporting the measures. Israel and close ally the United States have spoken against the resolutions. The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution last month demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza. It was supported by the 14 other Security Councilmember nations, but the U.S. objected because the resolution did not include a link to an immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The General Assembly resolution being voted on Wednesday mirrors the Security Council language: It “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. But while council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, though they do reflect world opinion. The second resolution being voted on supports the mandate of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA which was established by the General Assembly in 1949. It “deplores” legislation adopted by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Oct. 28 banning UNRWA’s activities in the Palestinian territories, which takes effect in 90 days. It calls on the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and uphold its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip.” JERUSALEM — Israel has lifted restrictions on public gatherings and outdoor activities in areas near the Lebanese border in the northern Golan Heights, two weeks after a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The army’s Home Front Command said it was changing its public safety guidelines to “full activity” from “partial activity.” Israel had tightened restrictions on Nov. 25, reflecting concerns that fighting could intensify ahead of any possible cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese militants. The truce went into effect on Nov. 27. In recent days, Israeli tanks and troops have advanced out of Israeli-held territory in the Golan Heights and pushed into a buffer zone inside Syria — a move Israel said it took to prevent attacks on its citizens. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States. BEIRUT - Syria-based Palestinian factions have formed a unified delegation to meet with the country's new rebel-led authorities. The factions said in a statement after their meeting Wednesday at the Palestinian Embassy that they stand by the side of the Syrian people. The factions condemned Israel’s airstrikes on Syria over the past few days that have destroyed much of the assets of the Syrian army. The factions decided to form a joint committee to run the affairs of Palestinians in Syria as well as to be in contact with the new insurgent-led transitional government, following the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Syria, many of them refugees, and the factions that have been based in Damascus were close to Assad’s government. Hamas was based in Syria until it left in 2012 a year after the county's civil war began. PRETORIA, South Africa — The United Nations chief says the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government has brought hope to the troubled Middle East, and pledged the global body’s support to the country's new leaders to ensure a smooth transition. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the U.N. wants to see “an inclusive political process in which the rights of all minorities will be fully respected, and paving the way towards a united sovereign Syria, with its territorial integrity fully re-established.” The jihadi-led Syrian rebels took control of the capital Damascus after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving many areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. A Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed force also controls large parts of northeastern Syria. Guterres said he fully trusts the people of Syria to be able “to choose their own destiny”. “I think it is our duty to do everything to support the different Syrian leaders in order to make sure that they come together and are able to guarantee a smooth transition, an inclusive transition in which all Syrians can feel that they belong," Guterres said. “The alternative does not make any sense.” Guterres is in South Africa to discuss the country’s role as it takes over the G20 presidency, among other issues. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike in central Gaza Strip killed four people and injured 16 others Wednesday, health officials said. Those killed and injured were taken to Awda Hospital after the strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the press center at the hospital. Since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October last year, at least 44,805 people have been killed and 106,257 others have been injured, according to the latest update by the Gaza Health ministry. BEIRUT — The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East was in Lebanon on Wednesday meeting with the head of the Lebanese army. In the wake of shocking overthrow of the government in neighboring Syria, the two military leaders discussed the security situation in Lebanon, a statement from the country's army said. U.S. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, met with the head of the Lebanese army Gen. Joseph Aoun to discuss ongoing American support for the implementation of the U.S.-and French-brokered ceasefire agreement, which ended more than a year of war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. On Tuesday, Kurilla was in eastern Syria visiting U.S. military bases and meeting with members of a Kurdish-led Syrian force that is backed by the U.S. He was assessing what CENTCOM described as efforts to counter a resurgence of the Islamic State group. He also visited Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on regional security and counter-IS operations. DAMASCUS — With the fall of Damascus, security forces of the deposed Bashar Assad government and staff withdrew from the Damascus International airport, grounding flights and stranding passengers. The airport has not been functional since. Now, security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken control of the airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence, and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital, and from one of the country’s three international airports. “Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive that led to the fall of Assad, told The Associated Press, calling it "the passage for Syria to breathe.” Al-Shami said security was restored at the international airport nearly 12 hours after the fall of Damascus. The factions entered the capital before dawn, and security members of the rebel alliance took charge before sunset on Sunday. He said he hoped the airport would be operational in less than a week. On Wednesday, a handful of engineers were inspecting four planes that were on the tarmac. Cleaning staff were removing broken furniture, glass windows, and trash from ransacking by looters following the fall of Damascus. The attack, reportedly by mobs and looters from the neighboring areas, left parts of the airport halls destroyed, with smashed furniture and merchandise. “There was a lot damage in the airport’s equipment and facilities in 90% of the sections,” Anis Fallouh, the head of the airport, told the AP. Fallouh said the operations to clean up the airport aim to convince international airlines to resume their flights to Damascus. “Soon in the coming days, flights will resume when we reopen air traffic to Syria and inform countries that Damascus airport is operational. We may start with domestic or test flights to ensure that everything in the airport is operational and avoid any mistakes. Then we can resume international flights.” Engineers were inspecting the four planes on the tarmac, from two Syrian airlines. Some administrative staff were visiting the airport as the new administrators of Damascus work to convince state officials to return to their posts. “We are on the Airbus 320, the technical team. Because of the security vacuum that happened on Sunday, some ill-intentioned people tried to cause damage but thank God the plane is fine — the body, the engines and its systems. Some things are missing and we are trying to fix that,” said Bassam Radi, the engineer in charge of maintenance, said. BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday addressed Berlin's reservations but also willingness to work the Syrian militant group in control of Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. “Nobody overlooks the origins of HTS in the al-Qaeda ideology. It is therefore clear that we will measure HTS by its actions,” Baerbock told reporters in Berlin. “Any cooperation presupposes that ethnic and religious minorities are protected, women’s rights are respected and acts of revenge are prevented.” She said that “whether we like it or not, the HTS militia ... is one of the decisive actors for the future of Syria.” “Together with our partners, we are therefore looking for an adequate way of dealing with HTS, with whom many have had no direct contact for good reasons,” she added. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the insurgent leader also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicted himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese town of Bin Jbeil killed one person and wounded another, the state news agency reported. National News Agency said Wednesday’s airstrike hit a home. It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from Israeli military. More than a dozen people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since a ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27, ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad . Assad's departure has sparked new fears of instability in the region now wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. Blinken will travel to Jordan and Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the territory since October 2023. The State Department said Blinken would meet Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II, in the port of Aqaba on Thursday before flying to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials Friday. Other stops in the region are also possible, officials said. Blinken “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. BEIRUT — Insurgents have set on fire the tomb of Syria’s former President Hafez Assad in his hometown in the northwest, a war monitor and a local journalist said Wednesday. Hafez Assad had ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, when his son, Bashar, succeeded him. Both ruled Syria with an iron fist and were blamed for crackdowns that left tens of thousands dead, mainly in the central city of Hama in 1982, and in much of the country since the civil war in 2011. Bashar Assad was ousted over the weekend and fled to Russia where he was given political asylum. Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian journalist Qusay Noor told The Associated Press that the tomb was set on fire Wednesday in the town of Qardaha in Latakia province. JERUSALEM — The United Nations is asking donors for over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also called for the “lifting all impediments to the entry of aid” in its appeal issued Wednesday. U.N. agencies say aid operations in Gaza are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames the U.N. for not distributing it within the territory. The appeal for 2025 includes $3.6 billion for Gaza and about $450 million for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has destroyed vast areas of the besieged territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million. Many have been displaced multiple times and are now crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food or other essentials. Most of the population relies on international aid. JERUSALEM — The president of Paraguay addressed the Israeli parliament Wednesday ahead of the reopening of the country’s embassy in Jerusalem. The decision to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel is a diplomatic win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and puts Paraguay in a small group of countries that have taken the move. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn't recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv. “Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is a body without a soul,” President Santiago Peña said in a speech to the Knesset. “So I say here today that without an embassy in Jerusalem, diplomatic relations with Israel do not have a real heart.” He said he hoped the move would inspire other countries to do the same. The embassy is set to open Thursday. Pena’s move was welcomed by Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, along with other Israeli leaders. “Tomorrow we will inaugurate together the embassy of Paraguay in our eternal capital, and that will happen not for the first time, but for the second time,” Netanyahu said. Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion. Israel reopened its embassy in September. MOSCOW — Russia said Wednesday it has maintained contacts with the new authorities in Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are monitoring most closely what is happening in Syria.” “We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.” Peskov wouldn’t give details of those contacts, saying only that Russia has contacted “those who are controlling the situation on the ground.” He wouldn’t give the number of Russian troops in Syria. Asked to comment about Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone on the border with Syria, Peskov called them destabilizing. “The strikes and actions in the Golan Heights area, in the buffer zone area, are unlikely to help stabilize the situation in an already destabilized Syria,” he said. Russia has granted political asylum to ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family after they fled rebels who seized Damascus over the weekend. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel. “There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday that was broadcast on state TV. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.” The Supreme leader added: “A neighboring state of Syria has played a clear role in this matter, and it continues to do so. Everyone can see this.” Khamenei also rejected speculation by analysts who have said that Iran will be weakened by the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. “Those ignorant analysts are unaware of the meaning of resistance. They think that if resistance weakens, Islamic Iran will also weaken. But I say, with the help and power of God — by the will of Almighty Allah — Iran is powerful and it will become even more powerful," he said.
WVU pulls off a stunner against No. 3 Gonzaga
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Mhow (Madhya Pradesh) [India], December 29 (ANI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday made history by becoming the first Defence Minister to visit Mhow in 24 years, where he lauded the Indian Army's training institutes for their outstanding contributions. Singh's visit was a significant milestone, as he acknowledged the crucial role these institutes play in shaping the military strategies and warfare skills of Indian Army personnel. Also Read | Delhi Assembly Elections 2025: Arvind Kejriwal Accuses BJP of Manipulating Electoral Roll Ahead of Polls. He was on a visit to the three Premier Training Institutes of the Indian Army - Army War College (AWC), Infantry School and Military College of Telecommunication and Engineering (MCTE) - in Mhow, Madhya Pradesh, accompanied by the Chief of the Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi and other senior officers of the Indian Army. Singh was briefed by the Officiating Commandant on the establishment of the Advanced Incubation and Research Centre and the various MoUs towards enabling the absorption and transformation of technologies. Also Read | Karnataka Suicide: 21-Year-Old Dies After Igniting Gelatin Sticks Outside House of Girl He Loved in Kalenahalli Village. He visited the Army Marksmanship Unit to witness their contribution towards national sports. Singh also visited the Infantry Museum, where he was briefed on the history of the Infantry as well as the induction of modernised equipment into the Infantry. Addressing the troops, he commended the courage and vigilance of the Indian Army personnel in safeguarding the borders and ensuring national security. "Your dedication and devotion to duty are an inspiration to all of us. It is due to your hard work and commitment that our country and its borders are becoming increasingly secure and strong," he said. Singh called upon the Armed Forces to continue keeping a vigilant eye on the current geopolitical scenario, and always remain alert and ready to deal with any kind of threats. During his address at Mhow Military Station, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, " Our jawans are not ordinary but very special. Whenever you want to do something you don't calculate but instead you think that no matter what we need to do it. This dedication of yours inspires the entire citizens of this country...as the Defence Minister, I want to say that we will have to keep ourselves alert always..." He emphasised that there are times when India faces challenges on the borders as well as on the internal front, which makes it imperative for the soldiers to keep a close eye on the activities of the adversaries and take timely and effective steps against them. Singh asserted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government's aim is to make India a developed and self-reliant nation by 2047, and the Armed Forces will play a crucial role in achieving this goal. "You are the protectors of our borders and the forerunners in nation-building. I am sure that you will continue securing our borders with courage and dedication, and contribute to realising the vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047," he said. Earlier, the Defence Minister visited the Bhim Janm Bhoomi, a memorial dedicated to Dr BR Ambedkar in Mhow, and paid homage to the Bharat Ratna and the architect of the Indian constitution at his birthplace. He described Dr BR Ambedkar as an epitome of selfless service, who dedicated his life to social equality and empowerment. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)Marin Voice: Departing supervisor recalls county’s successes in farewell
Arsenal climbed to second in the Premier League table with a 1-0 victory over Ipswich Town on Friday night. It wasn't a straightforward victory by any means and the Gunners were made to work hard for the three points. It wasn't pretty, but they got the job done and several players stepped up. One player in particular who shone against the Tractor Boys and is rewarding Mikel Arteta for his recent trust in him is Myles Lewis-Skelly. The youngster made his third league start in a row for Arsenal against Ipswich and showed why he was being handed the opportunity, with a fine display. It was far from a classic but Arsenal finished off their 2024 home fixtures with three points Myles Lewis-Skelly Against Ipswich Throughout his time as a prospect, Lewis-Skelly was known more for his work as a midfielder, but he's earned an opportunity with Arsenal playing at left-back. He's adapted to the position very well. His performance against Ipswich was indicative of that as he did a superb job keeping Omari Hutchinson quiet. Throughout the game, he recorded two clearances, three tackles, won eight of his nine ground duels and finished with a pass success rate of 98%. He rarely put a foot wrong and justified Arteta's decision to start him at left-back over the more experienced Oleksandr Zinchenko and Riccardo Calafiori. In terms of his SofaScore rating, only Jurrien Timber (8.0) earned a higher score than Lewis-Skelly (7.9). The performance caught the attention of Arsenal fans too and they were quick to jump on social media and share their excitement and appreciation for the youngster. The Emirates faithful couldn't hide their excitement about his potential. One fan simply posted: "Myles Lewis-Skelly. What a player." Another supporter was filled with superlatives for him and said: "Myles Lewis-Skelly is a perfect blend of bravery, doggedness and strength, and an incredibly smooth technician on top. Few players can protect the ball like him, and he confidently stamped his passing identity on the game. Every Arsenal player trusts him; 18 going on 28." A third fan claimed the youngster was seizing control of the left-back position and Calafiori had a lot of work to do to earn a spot in the starting lineup again, saying: "Myles Lewis-Skelly with this current tremendous performances in the defence will definitely cement his position in the Left-Back. Calafiori isn't ready." Arsenal have a very deep squad this season, but the 18-year-old is emerging as one of the club's most promising players. It takes some serious talent to keep the likes of Calafiori, who was one of the Gunners' marquee signings in the summer, out of the side. All statistics courtesy of SofaScore and accurate as of 27/12/2024The connections are clear between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Carolina Panthers, longtime NFC South rivals. The teams get together for a meeting on Sunday in Charlotte and showed recent signs they can play with any team. "It's an NFC South battle," Buccaneers coach Todd Bowles said. "All of them are going to be hard, none of them (are) going to be easy. ... They're playing pretty good football. They missed some games here and there, but they're playing very good football. It's going to be a tough battle." Few introductions are needed on Sunday, as first-year Panthers coach Dave Canales came to Carolina after serving as Buccaneers offensive coordinator a season ago. Canales' prized pupil last season, Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield was with the Panthers for part of the 2022 campaign. "There's some familiarity," Canales said of his connection to the Buccaneers. "Knowing coach Bowles, he's got a really sophisticated system and he attacks each team with a specific game plan. There's some principles that carry over. I know that he's going to have some things up his sleeve." The Buccaneers (5-6) playing a division opponent for the first time since an Oct. 27 loss to the Atlanta Falcons. The goal will be notching back-to-back wins for the first time since the first two weeks of the season. Four different ball-carriers, including Mayfield, found the end zone on the ground during a 30-7 drubbing of the New York Giants last Sunday. Mayfield also completed 24 of 30 passes for 294 yards. "For me, the biggest thing was blocking and tackling," Bowles said of what his team did well last weekend. "We cleaned up the fundamental and technique part of it." Star wideout Mike Evans was back in action for Tampa Bay following a three-game absence due to a hamstring injury. He finished with five receptions for 68 yards against the Giants and now gets a crack at a Carolina team allowing a league-high 30.9 points per game this season. However, the Panthers have tightened up their play as of late, winning two games in a row before hanging with the two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs in a 30-27 setback last Sunday. The outing against Kansas City may have been the most efficient performance of Panthers quarterback Bryce Young's two-year career. Young completed 21 of 35 passes for 263 yards and one score without throwing a pick. "It's not all Bryce, it's the whole unit," Canales said. "It's a collective effort, but he certainly needs to be the voice and driver of that." Wide receiver Jalen Coker (quadriceps), tight end Ja'Tavion Sanders (neck) and safety Lonnie Johnson (personal) were all missing from practice on Wednesday for Carolina. Defensive end LaBryan Ray is dealing with a hand issue and was among those limited. Safety Jordan Whitehead (pectoral) was one of four Buccaneers to miss practice on Wednesday. Evans practiced in full. Carolina and Tampa Bay might as well get used to each other, as the two teams will collide again in Week 17. --Field Level Media
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday that he has chosen Keith Kellogg, a highly decorated retired three-star general, to serve as his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, who is one of the architects of a staunchly conservative policy book that lays out an “America First” national security agenda for the incoming administration, will come into the role as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third year in February. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get any of our free email newsletters — news headlines, obituaries, sports, and more.
OTTAWA — A former chief adviser and close friend to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday he doesn't think Trudeau will stay on to lead the Liberals in the next election. Gerald Butts wrote in a Substack newsletter that Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland's surprise resignation from cabinet last week dealt Trudeau a staggering blow that loosened his already tenuous grip on the party. His post came the same day the Conservatives said they will move to bring down the government as early as the end of January, by first moving a non-confidence motion in a House committee that will sit Jan. 7. Trudeau is said to be thinking about his future during the holiday break, as an increasing number of current and former Liberal MPs publicly call on him to step down for the good of the party. Butts said Trudeau was "unlikely" to lead the party into the next campaign before Freeland's stunning departure and is "now much less likely to do so." Just a week ago, Butts joined the Liberal Christmas party confab in Ottawa alongside Trudeau's longtime chief of staff and close confidant Katie Telford. Butts, who has been friends with Trudeau since they studied together at McGill University, and Telford were part of the original team Trudeau, helping craft both his leadership bid in 2013 and his first winning election campaign in 2015. Butts then served as Trudeau's principal secretary during the first Trudeau term. He wrote that the Liberals are back now to where they were before Trudeau took over the party in 2013, in terms of their popularity and voters viewing them as out-of-touch. Butts, who did not reply to requests for comment on Friday, said in his article that Freeland's sudden departure is bad news for the party and that it should prepare to hold a leadership race rather than anoint Freeland or anyone else as leader. "If, as is now widely expected, Mr. Trudeau’s resignation is imminent, the only way forward is a real leadership race," Butts wrote. "If you want to know who can play hockey, put on a hockey game. It doesn’t matter who you think you support at this moment, we’ll all have a more seasoned view if we see these people in live action." Trudeau has multiple options should he decide that he will not lead the Liberals into the next election but none of them leave a long runway for a leadership race. The longest option would see him prorogue Parliament for a stretch of time to give his party breathing room for a leadership race without having to face confidence votes that could force an election this winter. But Parliament would have to return within a few months, meaning the Liberals would not have very long for campaigning compared to past party leadership races. The last race that elected Trudeau as leader lasted nearly two years. Eddie Goldenberg, who was chief of staff to former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien, wrote a column in the wake of Freeland's surprise resignation arguing that a party leadership race would take too long to organize and properly execute. He called for the Liberals to instead install Freeland as leader, after seeing her get a surge in support for taking a stand against Trudeau. Butts is not the only one who thinks that's the wrong move. Trudeau's former environment minister Catherine McKenna last week also argued the party needs a "short, serious leadership race" in a comment she made to The Canadian Press shortly after Freeland quit. Public opinion polling in Canada has put Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre light years ahead of Trudeau for more than the past year, with polling aggregator 338 Canada projecting a Conservative majority of 232 seats by sweeping nearly everywhere but Quebec. Butts said Freeland's abrupt exit from cabinet also means the next election will probably come sooner rather than later next year — and that it's even more likely now to result in a Conservative majority government. Conservatives have agitated for the past year for an immediate election fought over Trudeau's hallmark policies, namely his controversial carbon pricing regime. Conservative MP John Williamson said Friday he will try to get the ball rolling early in the new year on a non-confidence vote that could topple the Liberal government in little more than a month. Williamson, who chairs the public accounts committee, said in a social media post that he will put forward his non-confidence motion at a committee hearing on Jan. 7, and that the committee can later kick it over to the House of Commons to deal with once it returns on Jan. 27. That could be voted on as early as Jan. 30, and could bring an immediate election if it passes. Three non-confidence motions brought by the Tories failed in the fall. However, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said in the days after Freeland quit cabinet that he is now ready to vote down the government. “The Liberals don’t deserve another chance," he said in a letter posted to social media on Dec. 20, vowing that the NDP will put forward their own motion of non-confidence when parliament resumes and "vote to bring this government down." Williamson was not made available for an interview about the matter. The Conservatives issued a statement Friday morning that said Singh should support their motion for an earlier vote and be prepared to live up to his words. Nothing guarantees Williamson's move will survive committee or pass in a final vote, and Singh could opt to instead wait for the NDP's own opportunity to craft the wording over the key vote, then try to claim credit for toppling the government should his motion pass. That NDP opposition day vote, one of seven divided up among the opposition parties and scheduled by the governing party, would have to take place by March 26, according to the House of Commons standing orders. The NDP did not respond to a request for comment. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024. Kyle Duggan, The Canadian PressJoe Burrow's home broken into during Monday Night Football in latest pro-athlete home invasion
The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and expressing support for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, although they reflect world opinion. Israel has faced growing international criticism over its conduct in Gaza as it fights Hamas militants, especially when it comes to humanitarian aid for desperate people in the besieged and heavily destroyed territory. Israeli airstrikes in northern and central Gaza killed at least 33 people overnight and into Wednesday, Palestinian medical officials said. Hospital records show one Israeli strike in northern Gaza killed 19 people in a home, including a family of eight — four children, their parents and two grandparents. The Israeli military said it targeted a Hamas militant in the vicinity of the hospital, part of a blistering offensive in Gaza’s isolated and heavily destroyed north . The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 people, including children and older adults. Around 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 44,800 Palestinians in Gaza, according to local health officials. They say women and children make up more than half the dead but do not distinguish between fighters and civilians in their count. Israel says it has killed over 17,000 militants, without providing evidence. Here's the latest: JERUSALEM — Israeli hospital officials say a young boy is fighting for his life after a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank. An Israeli bus came under fire from a suspected Palestinian attacker late Wednesday, the military said, and Israeli forces are searching for the shooter. Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem says at least three people were wounded in the shooting, which took place just outside the city in an area near major Israeli settlements. The hospital says the boy, who is about 10, is in grave condition. It says two other people, ages 24 and 55, were also hurt. UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved resolutions Wednesday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and backing the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that Israel has moved to ban . The votes in the 193-nation world body were 158-9 with 13 abstentions to demand a ceasefire now and 159-9 with 11 abstentions to support the agency known as UNRWA. The votes culminated two days of speeches overwhelmingly calling for an end to the 14-month war between Israel and the militant Hamas group . General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, though they reflect world opinion. There are no vetoes in the assembly. Israel and its close ally, the United States, were in a tiny minority speaking and voting against the resolutions. BEIRUT — Israeli forces withdrew from a strategic town in southern Lebanon and handed it back to the Lebanese army in coordination with U.N. peacekeepers, the two militaries said Wednesday, marking an important test of the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants. It appeared to be Israel's first pullout from a Lebanese border town captured during this fall’s ground invasion, and comes as part of the initial phase of the ceasefire. The Lebanese army said Wednesday it has deployed units to five positions around the town of Khiam coinciding with the Israeli army’s withdrawal. Israel's military confirmed this was the first town it has turned over to the Lebanese army under the truce, which — if it endures — would end nearly 14 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. The Lebanese army warned civilians to stay out of Khiam until it can clear the area of any unexploded munitions. The strategic hilltop town, located less than 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the border with Israel, saw some of the most intense fighting during the war. Thousands of Lebanese displaced by the war returned home two weeks ago after a ceasefire took hold , driving cars stacked with personal belongings and defying warnings from Lebanese and Israeli troops to avoid some areas. WASHINGTON — All Russian naval ships that were docked at the Syrian port of Tartus have left and it appears Moscow is now looking for a new base along the coast now that its key ally, Bashar Assad, has been ousted a ruler of Syria, a U.S. official said. It’s not clear where the ships will go, but Russia may seek a new port on the Mediterranean Sea along the African shoreline, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss U.S. assessments. The official did not say how many vessels Russia had in Syria at the time Assad was overthrown. Moscow has dedicated the bulk of its military assets to the war in Ukraine. Asked about Tartus on Wednesday, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said that the U.S. is seeing some Russian forces and naval vessels leaving Syria. “They just had one of their key political allies, ousted,” said Singh. “We’re seeing Russia consolidate assets.” — By Lolita C. Baldor UNITED NATIONS – The Palestinians are urging United Nations member countries to vote in favor of resolutions demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and supporting the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees, which Israel has moved to ban in Palestinian territories. The Palestinian mission to the United Nations issued the urgent appeal to the 193 U.N. member nations ahead of Wednesday afternoon’s votes on the resolutions in the General Assembly, whose members have has been listening to two days of speeches overwhelmingly supporting the measures. Israel and close ally the United States have spoken against the resolutions. The Palestinians and their supporters went to the General Assembly after the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution last month demanding an immediate ceasefire in the war in Gaza. It was supported by the 14 other Security Councilmember nations, but the U.S. objected because the resolution did not include a link to an immediate release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas. The General Assembly resolution being voted on Wednesday mirrors the Security Council language: It “demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent cease-fire to be respected by all parties, and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.” Unlike the Security Council, there are no vetoes in the General Assembly. But while council resolutions are legally binding, assembly resolutions are not, though they do reflect world opinion. The second resolution being voted on supports the mandate of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA which was established by the General Assembly in 1949. It “deplores” legislation adopted by Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, on Oct. 28 banning UNRWA’s activities in the Palestinian territories, which takes effect in 90 days. It calls on the Israeli government “to abide by its international obligations, respect the privileges and immunities of UNRWA and uphold its responsibility to allow and facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms into and throughout the entire Gaza Strip.” JERUSALEM — Israel has lifted restrictions on public gatherings and outdoor activities in areas near the Lebanese border in the northern Golan Heights, two weeks after a ceasefire with Hezbollah. The army’s Home Front Command said it was changing its public safety guidelines to “full activity” from “partial activity.” Israel had tightened restrictions on Nov. 25, reflecting concerns that fighting could intensify ahead of any possible cease-fire between Israel and Lebanese militants. The truce went into effect on Nov. 27. In recent days, Israeli tanks and troops have advanced out of Israeli-held territory in the Golan Heights and pushed into a buffer zone inside Syria — a move Israel said it took to prevent attacks on its citizens. Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, except by the United States. BEIRUT - Syria-based Palestinian factions have formed a unified delegation to meet with the country's new rebel-led authorities. The factions said in a statement after their meeting Wednesday at the Palestinian Embassy that they stand by the side of the Syrian people. The factions condemned Israel’s airstrikes on Syria over the past few days that have destroyed much of the assets of the Syrian army. The factions decided to form a joint committee to run the affairs of Palestinians in Syria as well as to be in contact with the new insurgent-led transitional government, following the ouster of President Bashar Assad. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in Syria, many of them refugees, and the factions that have been based in Damascus were close to Assad’s government. Hamas was based in Syria until it left in 2012 a year after the county's civil war began. PRETORIA, South Africa — The United Nations chief says the fall of Syria’s authoritarian government has brought hope to the troubled Middle East, and pledged the global body’s support to the country's new leaders to ensure a smooth transition. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday that the U.N. wants to see “an inclusive political process in which the rights of all minorities will be fully respected, and paving the way towards a united sovereign Syria, with its territorial integrity fully re-established.” The jihadi-led Syrian rebels took control of the capital Damascus after the Syrian army withdrew from much of southern part of the country, leaving many areas, including several provincial capitals, under the control of opposition fighters. A Kurdish-led, U.S.-backed force also controls large parts of northeastern Syria. Guterres said he fully trusts the people of Syria to be able “to choose their own destiny”. “I think it is our duty to do everything to support the different Syrian leaders in order to make sure that they come together and are able to guarantee a smooth transition, an inclusive transition in which all Syrians can feel that they belong," Guterres said. “The alternative does not make any sense.” Guterres is in South Africa to discuss the country’s role as it takes over the G20 presidency, among other issues. DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An Israeli strike in central Gaza Strip killed four people and injured 16 others Wednesday, health officials said. Those killed and injured were taken to Awda Hospital after the strike hit a house in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, according to the press center at the hospital. Since Israel’s war in Gaza began in October last year, at least 44,805 people have been killed and 106,257 others have been injured, according to the latest update by the Gaza Health ministry. BEIRUT — The top U.S. military commander for the Middle East was in Lebanon on Wednesday meeting with the head of the Lebanese army. In the wake of shocking overthrow of the government in neighboring Syria, the two military leaders discussed the security situation in Lebanon, a statement from the country's army said. U.S. Army Gen. Erik Kurilla, who leads U.S. Central Command, met with the head of the Lebanese army Gen. Joseph Aoun to discuss ongoing American support for the implementation of the U.S.-and French-brokered ceasefire agreement, which ended more than a year of war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Israel has said the truce deal gives it the right to use military force against perceived ceasefire violations. Israel has launched near-daily strikes, mostly in southern Lebanon, that have killed at least 28 people and wounded 25 others since the ceasefire took effect on Nov. 27. Still, the shaky truce appears to be holding. Five people were killed Wednesday by at least three Israeli strikes in different towns in the southern municipality of Bint Jbeil, Lebanon’s Health Ministry and state news agency said. On Tuesday, Kurilla was in eastern Syria visiting U.S. military bases and meeting with members of a Kurdish-led Syrian force that is backed by the U.S. He was assessing what CENTCOM described as efforts to counter a resurgence of the Islamic State group. He also visited Baghdad for talks with Iraqi officials on regional security and counter-IS operations. DAMASCUS — With the fall of Damascus, security forces of the deposed Bashar Assad government and staff withdrew from the Damascus International airport, grounding flights and stranding passengers. The airport has not been functional since. Now, security members of the rebel alliance in control of Syria have taken control of the airport, hoping to restore security, a sense of confidence, and the legitimacy needed to restart flights out of the capital, and from one of the country’s three international airports. “Damascus international airport is the heart of the city because it is the gateway for international delegations and missions,” Omar al-Shami, a security official with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the faction that led the shock offensive that led to the fall of Assad, told The Associated Press, calling it "the passage for Syria to breathe.” Al-Shami said security was restored at the international airport nearly 12 hours after the fall of Damascus. The factions entered the capital before dawn, and security members of the rebel alliance took charge before sunset on Sunday. He said he hoped the airport would be operational in less than a week. On Wednesday, a handful of engineers were inspecting four planes that were on the tarmac. Cleaning staff were removing broken furniture, glass windows, and trash from ransacking by looters following the fall of Damascus. The attack, reportedly by mobs and looters from the neighboring areas, left parts of the airport halls destroyed, with smashed furniture and merchandise. “There was a lot damage in the airport’s equipment and facilities in 90% of the sections,” Anis Fallouh, the head of the airport, told the AP. Fallouh said the operations to clean up the airport aim to convince international airlines to resume their flights to Damascus. “Soon in the coming days, flights will resume when we reopen air traffic to Syria and inform countries that Damascus airport is operational. We may start with domestic or test flights to ensure that everything in the airport is operational and avoid any mistakes. Then we can resume international flights.” Engineers were inspecting the four planes on the tarmac, from two Syrian airlines. Some administrative staff were visiting the airport as the new administrators of Damascus work to convince state officials to return to their posts. “We are on the Airbus 320, the technical team. Because of the security vacuum that happened on Sunday, some ill-intentioned people tried to cause damage but thank God the plane is fine — the body, the engines and its systems. Some things are missing and we are trying to fix that,” said Bassam Radi, the engineer in charge of maintenance, said. BERLIN — German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Wednesday addressed Berlin's reservations but also willingness to work the Syrian militant group in control of Damascus, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS. “Nobody overlooks the origins of HTS in the al-Qaeda ideology. It is therefore clear that we will measure HTS by its actions,” Baerbock told reporters in Berlin. “Any cooperation presupposes that ethnic and religious minorities are protected, women’s rights are respected and acts of revenge are prevented.” She said that “whether we like it or not, the HTS militia ... is one of the decisive actors for the future of Syria.” “Together with our partners, we are therefore looking for an adequate way of dealing with HTS, with whom many have had no direct contact for good reasons,” she added. Ahmad al-Sharaa, the insurgent leader also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, has renounced longtime ties to al-Qaida and depicted himself as a champion of pluralism and tolerance. BEIRUT — An Israeli airstrike near the southern Lebanese town of Bin Jbeil killed one person and wounded another, the state news agency reported. National News Agency said Wednesday’s airstrike hit a home. It gave no further details and there was no immediate comment from Israeli military. More than a dozen people have been killed in Israeli airstrikes since a ceasefire went into effect on Nov. 27, ending the 14-month Israel-Hezbollah war. WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is returning to the Middle East this week on his 12th visit since the Israel-Hamas war erupted last year but his first since the ouster of Syrian President Bashar Assad . Assad's departure has sparked new fears of instability in the region now wracked by three conflicts despite a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon. Blinken will travel to Jordan and Turkey on Thursday and Friday for talks expected to focus largely on Syria but also touch on long-elusive hopes for a deal to end the fighting in Gaza that has devastated the territory since October 2023. The State Department said Blinken would meet Jordanian officials, including King Abdullah II, in the port of Aqaba on Thursday before flying to Ankara for meetings with Turkish officials Friday. Other stops in the region are also possible, officials said. Blinken “will reiterate the United States’ support for an inclusive, Syrian-led transition to an accountable and representative government,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement. BEIRUT — Insurgents have set on fire the tomb of Syria’s former President Hafez Assad in his hometown in the northwest, a war monitor and a local journalist said Wednesday. Hafez Assad had ruled Syria for 30 years until his death in 2000, when his son, Bashar, succeeded him. Both ruled Syria with an iron fist and were blamed for crackdowns that left tens of thousands dead, mainly in the central city of Hama in 1982, and in much of the country since the civil war in 2011. Bashar Assad was ousted over the weekend and fled to Russia where he was given political asylum. Rami Abdurrahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Syrian journalist Qusay Noor told The Associated Press that the tomb was set on fire Wednesday in the town of Qardaha in Latakia province. JERUSALEM — The United Nations is asking donors for over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the Palestinian territories, most of it earmarked for war-ravaged Gaza. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also called for the “lifting all impediments to the entry of aid” in its appeal issued Wednesday. U.N. agencies say aid operations in Gaza are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order. Israel says it allows enough aid to enter and blames the U.N. for not distributing it within the territory. The appeal for 2025 includes $3.6 billion for Gaza and about $450 million for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel’s offensive, launched after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack, has destroyed vast areas of the besieged territory and displaced around 90% of its population of 2.3 million. Many have been displaced multiple times and are now crammed into squalid tent camps with little in the way of food or other essentials. Most of the population relies on international aid. JERUSALEM — The president of Paraguay addressed the Israeli parliament Wednesday ahead of the reopening of the country’s embassy in Jerusalem. The decision to reopen the embassy in Jerusalem and recognize the city as the capital of Israel is a diplomatic win for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and puts Paraguay in a small group of countries that have taken the move. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 but it wasn't recognized by the international community, and most countries run their embassies out of Tel Aviv. “Without Jerusalem, the land of Israel is a body without a soul,” President Santiago Peña said in a speech to the Knesset. “So I say here today that without an embassy in Jerusalem, diplomatic relations with Israel do not have a real heart.” He said he hoped the move would inspire other countries to do the same. The embassy is set to open Thursday. Pena’s move was welcomed by Netanyahu, Israeli President Isaac Herzog, along with other Israeli leaders. “Tomorrow we will inaugurate together the embassy of Paraguay in our eternal capital, and that will happen not for the first time, but for the second time,” Netanyahu said. Paraguay had an embassy in Jerusalem in 2018, under Former President Horacio Cartes. That embassy was moved back to Tel Aviv by Cartes’ successor, Mario Abdo Benitez, prompting Israel to close its embassy in Asuncion. Israel reopened its embassy in September. MOSCOW — Russia said Wednesday it has maintained contacts with the new authorities in Syria. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that “we are monitoring most closely what is happening in Syria.” “We, of course, maintain contacts with those who are currently controlling the situation in Syria,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters. “This is necessary because our bases are located there, our diplomatic mission is located there and, of course, the issue related to ensuring the security of these facilities is extremely important and of primary significance.” Peskov wouldn’t give details of those contacts, saying only that Russia has contacted “those who are controlling the situation on the ground.” He wouldn’t give the number of Russian troops in Syria. Asked to comment about Israel’s seizure of a buffer zone on the border with Syria, Peskov called them destabilizing. “The strikes and actions in the Golan Heights area, in the buffer zone area, are unlikely to help stabilize the situation in an already destabilized Syria,” he said. Russia has granted political asylum to ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad and his family after they fled rebels who seized Damascus over the weekend. TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the recent events in Syria, including the fall of its government, were part of a joint plan by the United States and Israel. “There should be no doubt that what has happened in Syria is the result of a joint American and Zionist plan," Khamenei said in a speech in Tehran on Wednesday that was broadcast on state TV. “We have evidence, and this evidence leaves no room for doubt.” The Supreme leader added: “A neighboring state of Syria has played a clear role in this matter, and it continues to do so. Everyone can see this.” Khamenei also rejected speculation by analysts who have said that Iran will be weakened by the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government. “Those ignorant analysts are unaware of the meaning of resistance. They think that if resistance weakens, Islamic Iran will also weaken. But I say, with the help and power of God — by the will of Almighty Allah — Iran is powerful and it will become even more powerful," he said.
Nasdaq surges above 20,000 after US inflation data matches estimates
By BILL BARROW, Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer who won the presidency in the wake of the Watergate scandal and Vietnam War, endured humbling defeat after one tumultuous term and then redefined life after the White House as a global humanitarian, has died. He was 100 years old. The longest-lived American president died on Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care , at his home in the small town of Plains, Georgia, where he and his wife, Rosalynn, who died at 96 in November 2023 , spent most of their lives, The Carter Center said. Businessman, Navy officer, evangelist, politician, negotiator, author, woodworker, citizen of the world — Carter forged a path that still challenges political assumptions and stands out among the 45 men who reached the nation’s highest office. The 39th president leveraged his ambition with a keen intellect, deep religious faith and prodigious work ethic, conducting diplomatic missions into his 80s and building houses for the poor well into his 90s. “My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have to try to make a difference,” Carter once said. A moderate Democrat, Carter entered the 1976 presidential race as a little-known Georgia governor with a broad smile, outspoken Baptist mores and technocratic plans reflecting his education as an engineer. His no-frills campaign depended on public financing, and his promise not to deceive the American people resonated after Richard Nixon’s disgrace and U.S. defeat in southeast Asia. “If I ever lie to you, if I ever make a misleading statement, don’t vote for me. I would not deserve to be your president,” Carter repeated before narrowly beating Republican incumbent Gerald Ford, who had lost popularity pardoning Nixon. Carter governed amid Cold War pressures, turbulent oil markets and social upheaval over racism, women’s rights and America’s global role. His most acclaimed achievement in office was a Mideast peace deal that he brokered by keeping Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at the bargaining table for 13 days in 1978. That Camp David experience inspired the post-presidential center where Carter would establish so much of his legacy. Yet Carter’s electoral coalition splintered under double-digit inflation, gasoline lines and the 444-day hostage crisis in Iran. His bleakest hour came when eight Americans died in a failed hostage rescue in April 1980, helping to ensure his landslide defeat to Republican Ronald Reagan. Carter acknowledged in his 2020 “White House Diary” that he could be “micromanaging” and “excessively autocratic,” complicating dealings with Congress and the federal bureaucracy. He also turned a cold shoulder to Washington’s news media and lobbyists, not fully appreciating their influence on his political fortunes. “It didn’t take us long to realize that the underestimation existed, but by that time we were not able to repair the mistake,” Carter told historians in 1982, suggesting that he had “an inherent incompatibility” with Washington insiders. Carter insisted his overall approach was sound and that he achieved his primary objectives — to “protect our nation’s security and interests peacefully” and “enhance human rights here and abroad” — even if he fell spectacularly short of a second term. Ignominious defeat, though, allowed for renewal. The Carters founded The Carter Center in 1982 as a first-of-its-kind base of operations, asserting themselves as international peacemakers and champions of democracy, public health and human rights. “I was not interested in just building a museum or storing my White House records and memorabilia,” Carter wrote in a memoir published after his 90th birthday. “I wanted a place where we could work.” That work included easing nuclear tensions in North and South Korea, helping to avert a U.S. invasion of Haiti and negotiating cease-fires in Bosnia and Sudan. By 2022, The Carter Center had declared at least 113 elections in Latin America, Asia and Africa to be free or fraudulent. Recently, the center began monitoring U.S. elections as well. Carter’s stubborn self-assuredness and even self-righteousness proved effective once he was unencumbered by the Washington order, sometimes to the point of frustrating his successors . He went “where others are not treading,” he said, to places like Ethiopia, Liberia and North Korea, where he secured the release of an American who had wandered across the border in 2010. “I can say what I like. I can meet whom I want. I can take on projects that please me and reject the ones that don’t,” Carter said. He announced an arms-reduction-for-aid deal with North Korea without clearing the details with Bill Clinton’s White House. He openly criticized President George W. Bush for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. He also criticized America’s approach to Israel with his 2006 book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” And he repeatedly countered U.S. administrations by insisting North Korea should be included in international affairs, a position that most aligned Carter with Republican President Donald Trump. Among the center’s many public health initiatives, Carter vowed to eradicate the guinea worm parasite during his lifetime, and nearly achieved it: Cases dropped from millions in the 1980s to nearly a handful. With hardhats and hammers, the Carters also built homes with Habitat for Humanity. The Nobel committee’s 2002 Peace Prize cites his “untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development.” Carter should have won it alongside Sadat and Begin in 1978, the chairman added. Carter accepted the recognition saying there was more work to be done. “The world is now, in many ways, a more dangerous place,” he said. “The greater ease of travel and communication has not been matched by equal understanding and mutual respect.” Carter’s globetrotting took him to remote villages where he met little “Jimmy Carters,” so named by admiring parents. But he spent most of his days in the same one-story Plains house — expanded and guarded by Secret Service agents — where they lived before he became governor. He regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined and the coronavirus pandemic raged. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world to the small sanctuary where Carter will receive his final send-off after a state funeral at Washington’s National Cathedral. The common assessment that he was a better ex-president than president rankled Carter and his allies. His prolific post-presidency gave him a brand above politics, particularly for Americans too young to witness him in office. But Carter also lived long enough to see biographers and historians reassess his White House years more generously. His record includes the deregulation of key industries, reduction of U.S. dependence on foreign oil, cautious management of the national debt and notable legislation on the environment, education and mental health. He focused on human rights in foreign policy, pressuring dictators to release thousands of political prisoners . He acknowledged America’s historical imperialism, pardoned Vietnam War draft evaders and relinquished control of the Panama Canal. He normalized relations with China. “I am not nominating Jimmy Carter for a place on Mount Rushmore,” Stuart Eizenstat, Carter’s domestic policy director, wrote in a 2018 book. “He was not a great president” but also not the “hapless and weak” caricature voters rejected in 1980, Eizenstat said. Rather, Carter was “good and productive” and “delivered results, many of which were realized only after he left office.” Madeleine Albright, a national security staffer for Carter and Clinton’s secretary of state, wrote in Eizenstat’s forward that Carter was “consequential and successful” and expressed hope that “perceptions will continue to evolve” about his presidency. “Our country was lucky to have him as our leader,” said Albright, who died in 2022. Jonathan Alter, who penned a comprehensive Carter biography published in 2020, said in an interview that Carter should be remembered for “an epic American life” spanning from a humble start in a home with no electricity or indoor plumbing through decades on the world stage across two centuries. “He will likely go down as one of the most misunderstood and underestimated figures in American history,” Alter told The Associated Press. James Earl Carter Jr. was born Oct. 1, 1924, in Plains and spent his early years in nearby Archery. His family was a minority in the mostly Black community, decades before the civil rights movement played out at the dawn of Carter’s political career. Carter, who campaigned as a moderate on race relations but governed more progressively, talked often of the influence of his Black caregivers and playmates but also noted his advantages: His land-owning father sat atop Archery’s tenant-farming system and owned a main street grocery. His mother, Lillian , would become a staple of his political campaigns. Seeking to broaden his world beyond Plains and its population of fewer than 1,000 — then and now — Carter won an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy, graduating in 1946. That same year he married Rosalynn Smith, another Plains native, a decision he considered more important than any he made as head of state. She shared his desire to see the world, sacrificing college to support his Navy career. Carter climbed in rank to lieutenant, but then his father was diagnosed with cancer, so the submarine officer set aside his ambitions of admiralty and moved the family back to Plains. His decision angered Rosalynn, even as she dived into the peanut business alongside her husband. Carter again failed to talk with his wife before his first run for office — he later called it “inconceivable” not to have consulted her on such major life decisions — but this time, she was on board. “My wife is much more political,” Carter told the AP in 2021. He won a state Senate seat in 1962 but wasn’t long for the General Assembly and its back-slapping, deal-cutting ways. He ran for governor in 1966 — losing to arch-segregationist Lester Maddox — and then immediately focused on the next campaign. Carter had spoken out against church segregation as a Baptist deacon and opposed racist “Dixiecrats” as a state senator. Yet as a local school board leader in the 1950s he had not pushed to end school segregation even after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, despite his private support for integration. And in 1970, Carter ran for governor again as the more conservative Democrat against Carl Sanders, a wealthy businessman Carter mocked as “Cufflinks Carl.” Sanders never forgave him for anonymous, race-baiting flyers, which Carter disavowed. Ultimately, Carter won his races by attracting both Black voters and culturally conservative whites. Once in office, he was more direct. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over,” he declared in his 1971 inaugural address, setting a new standard for Southern governors that landed him on the cover of Time magazine. His statehouse initiatives included environmental protection, boosting rural education and overhauling antiquated executive branch structures. He proclaimed Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the slain civil rights leader’s home state. And he decided, as he received presidential candidates in 1972, that they were no more talented than he was. In 1974, he ran Democrats’ national campaign arm. Then he declared his own candidacy for 1976. An Atlanta newspaper responded with the headline: “Jimmy Who?” The Carters and a “Peanut Brigade” of family members and Georgia supporters camped out in Iowa and New Hampshire, establishing both states as presidential proving grounds. His first Senate endorsement: a young first-termer from Delaware named Joe Biden. Yet it was Carter’s ability to navigate America’s complex racial and rural politics that cemented the nomination. He swept the Deep South that November, the last Democrat to do so, as many white Southerners shifted to Republicans in response to civil rights initiatives. A self-declared “born-again Christian,” Carter drew snickers by referring to Scripture in a Playboy magazine interview, saying he “had looked on many women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.” The remarks gave Ford a new foothold and television comedians pounced — including NBC’s new “Saturday Night Live” show. But voters weary of cynicism in politics found it endearing. Carter chose Minnesota Sen. Walter “Fritz” Mondale as his running mate on a “Grits and Fritz” ticket. In office, he elevated the vice presidency and the first lady’s office. Mondale’s governing partnership was a model for influential successors Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Biden. Rosalynn Carter was one of the most involved presidential spouses in history, welcomed into Cabinet meetings and huddles with lawmakers and top aides. The Carters presided with uncommon informality: He used his nickname “Jimmy” even when taking the oath of office, carried his own luggage and tried to silence the Marine Band’s “Hail to the Chief.” They bought their clothes off the rack. Carter wore a cardigan for a White House address, urging Americans to conserve energy by turning down their thermostats. Amy, the youngest of four children, attended District of Columbia public school. Washington’s social and media elite scorned their style. But the larger concern was that “he hated politics,” according to Eizenstat, leaving him nowhere to turn politically once economic turmoil and foreign policy challenges took their toll. Carter partially deregulated the airline, railroad and trucking industries and established the departments of Education and Energy, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He designated millions of acres of Alaska as national parks or wildlife refuges. He appointed a then-record number of women and nonwhite people to federal posts. He never had a Supreme Court nomination, but he elevated civil rights attorney Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the nation’s second highest court, positioning her for a promotion in 1993. He appointed Paul Volker, the Federal Reserve chairman whose policies would help the economy boom in the 1980s — after Carter left office. He built on Nixon’s opening with China, and though he tolerated autocrats in Asia, pushed Latin America from dictatorships to democracy. But he couldn’t immediately tame inflation or the related energy crisis. And then came Iran. After he admitted the exiled Shah of Iran to the U.S. for medical treatment, the American Embassy in Tehran was overrun in 1979 by followers of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Negotiations to free the hostages broke down repeatedly ahead of the failed rescue attempt. The same year, Carter signed SALT II, the new strategic arms treaty with Leonid Brezhnev of the Soviet Union, only to pull it back, impose trade sanctions and order a U.S. boycott of the Moscow Olympics after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. Hoping to instill optimism, he delivered what the media dubbed his “malaise” speech, although he didn’t use that word. He declared the nation was suffering “a crisis of confidence.” By then, many Americans had lost confidence in the president, not themselves. Carter campaigned sparingly for reelection because of the hostage crisis, instead sending Rosalynn as Sen. Edward M. Kennedy challenged him for the Democratic nomination. Carter famously said he’d “kick his ass,” but was hobbled by Kennedy as Reagan rallied a broad coalition with “make America great again” appeals and asking voters whether they were “better off than you were four years ago.” Reagan further capitalized on Carter’s lecturing tone, eviscerating him in their lone fall debate with the quip: “There you go again.” Carter lost all but six states and Republicans rolled to a new Senate majority. Carter successfully negotiated the hostages’ freedom after the election, but in one final, bitter turn of events, Tehran waited until hours after Carter left office to let them walk free. At 56, Carter returned to Georgia with “no idea what I would do with the rest of my life.” Four decades after launching The Carter Center, he still talked of unfinished business. “I thought when we got into politics we would have resolved everything,” Carter told the AP in 2021. “But it’s turned out to be much more long-lasting and insidious than I had thought it was. I think in general, the world itself is much more divided than in previous years.” Still, he affirmed what he said when he underwent treatment for a cancer diagnosis in his 10th decade of life. “I’m perfectly at ease with whatever comes,” he said in 2015 . “I’ve had a wonderful life. I’ve had thousands of friends, I’ve had an exciting, adventurous and gratifying existence.” ___ Former Associated Press journalist Alex Sanz contributed to this report.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy began a battle among supporters of President-elect Donald Trump over skilled immigration , sparking questions about how the technology executives would fit into a populist new administration. Trump tasked Musk and Ramaswamy to lead the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency . The two took to social media to argue that tech companies such as Musk's SpaceX and Tesla need workers on H-1B visas because the United States has not prioritized education enough. "There is a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent. It is the fundamental limiting factor in Silicon Valley,” Musk wrote on X , arguing that the tech industry needs to "double" the number of engineers working in the U.S. today and comparing the benefits of the program to a sports team recruiting talent from around the world. Musk, who once had an H-1B visa, said he used the program to employ and recruit foreign workers at Tesla. 🚨SILICON VALLEY'S BIGGEST LIMITATION: ENGINEERING TALENT SHORTAGE The U.S. semiconductor industry alone needs over 160,000 engineers by 2032, driven by $250B+ in new investments. Demand for AI experts has skyrocketed, with Elon calling the talent war the "craziest" ever.... https://t.co/pssGHDCHWj pic.twitter.com/lsaaU71Oja — Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) “If you want your TEAM to win the championship, you need to recruit top talent wherever they may be. That enables the whole TEAM to win,” Musk wrote on X. Ramaswamy, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from India, agreed with Musk while criticizing U.S. society, saying it has “venerated mediocrity over excellence.” “Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG,” he wrote Thursday. “A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.” However, backlash came swiftly from MAGA supporters who want to see Trump take a hard-line immigration policy with a mass deportation of illegal immigrants instead of an expansion of the H-1B program. “If we are going to have a throwdown, let’s have it now,” said Steve Bannon on his War Room show Friday morning, calling the arguments in favor of H-1B a "total scam." Loyal Trump supporters criticized the two tech entrepreneurs over their stance. Former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz asked the two to stay out of immigration policy. We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid’s gender - and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline. We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy. https://t.co/hgCZTJ0ba9 — Former Congressman Matt Gaetz (@FmrRepMattGaetz) “We welcomed the tech bros when they came running our way to avoid the 3rd grade teacher picking their kid’s gender - and the obvious Biden/Harris economic decline,” Gaetz wrote in a Thursday social media post . “We did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy.” The firestorm began on X after far-right activist Laura Loomer slammed Trump’s decision to name Sriram Krishnan, a venture capitalist born in India, as his artificial intelligence policy adviser. Loomer pointed out Krishnan’s prior support for removing some caps on green cards and making it easier for skilled foreign workers to come to the U.S. Others are warning the two techs to stay out of immigration policy unless specifically asked by the incoming Trump administration. “We’ve already started to see a problem where it looks like Musk is calling the shots like what we last saw last week with government funding,” said a GOP Senate aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity in an effort to reflect candidly on the situation. “We need [Musk and Ramaswamy] to stay out of the conversations about immigration policy on social media. It’s divisive, and I’m sure the incoming administration would prefer to have these conversations behind the scenes instead of debating them out in the open.” “We are about to have a GOP trifecta, and we need to be united as a party, and this only proves to divide us further,” the aide added. Musk and Ramaswamy’s comments also drew criticism from former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called on Trump to prioritize American workers over foreign ones. “There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers,” Haley wrote Thursday. During his first term, Trump restricted access to foreign worker visas and previously criticized the H-1B visa program , which allows 65,000 highly skilled workers to immigrate to the U.S. each year to fill a specific job and grants another 20,000 visas to such workers who have received an advanced degree in the U.S. During the pandemic, Trump temporarily froze H-1B visas in an effort to try to help Americans dealing with job loss. The Biden administration introduced new rules to update the program by making it easier for international students to receive the visas and by improving the application process. During this past campaign, Trump appeared to be more open to allowing highly skilled foreigners to come work in the country. In an interview on the All In podcast over the summer, Trump said he would grant permanent residency to any foreigner who graduates from college in the U.S. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER “What I want to do, and what I will do is – you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically, as part of your diploma, a green card to be able to stay in this country,” Trump said at the time. The Trump transition did not respond to a request for comment.BANGKOK — Japanese automakers Honda and Nissan will attempt to merge and create the world's third-largest automaker by sales as the industry undergoes dramatic changes in its transition away from fossil fuels. The two companies said they had signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday and that smaller Nissan alliance member Mitsubishi Motors also had agreed to join the talks on integrating their businesses. Honda will initially lead the new management, retaining the principles and brands of each company. Following is a quick look at what a combined Honda and Nissan would mean for the companies, and for the auto industry. Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida, left, and Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe, center, and Takao Kato CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, right, arrive to attend a joint news conference Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) The ascent of Chinese automakers is rattling the industry at a time when manufacturers are struggling to shift from fossil fuel-driven vehicles to electrics. Relatively inexpensive EVs from China's BYD, Great Wall and Nio are eating into the market shares of U.S. and Japanese car companies in China and elsewhere. Japanese automakers have lagged behind big rivals in EVs and are now trying to cut costs and make up for lost time. Nissan, Honda and Mitsubishi announced in August that they will share components for electric vehicles like batteries and jointly research software for autonomous driving to adapt better to dramatic changes in the auto industry centered around electrification. A preliminary agreement between Honda, Japan's second-largest automaker, and Nissan, third largest, was announced in March. A merger could result in a behemoth worth about $55 billion based on the market capitalization of all three automakers. Joining forces would help the smaller Japanese automakers add scale to compete with Japan's market leader Toyota Motor Corp. and with Germany's Volkswagen AG. Toyota itself has technology partnerships with Japan's Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru Corp. Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida, left, Honda Chief Executive Toshihiro Mibe, center, and Takao Kato, CEO of Mitsubishi Motors, right, pose for photographers during a joint news conference in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Nissan has truck-based body-on-frame large SUVs such as the Armada and Infiniti QX80 that Honda doesn't have, with large towing capacities and good off-road performance, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of AutoForecast Solutions. Nissan also has years of experience building batteries and electric vehicles, and gas-electric hybird powertrains that could help Honda in developing its own EVs and next generation of hybrids, he said. "Nissan does have some product segments where Honda doesn't currently play," that a merger or partnership could help, said Sam Abuelsamid, a Detroit-area automotive industry analsyt. While Nissan's electric Leaf and Ariya haven't sold well in the U.S., they're solid vehicles, Fiorani said. "They haven't been resting on their laurels, and they have been developing this technology," he said. "They have new products coming that could provide a good platform for Honda for its next generation." Nissan said last month that it was slashing 9,000 jobs, or about 6% of its global work force, and reducing global production capacity by 20% after reporting a quarterly loss of 9.3 billion yen ($61 million). Earlier this month it reshuffled its management and its chief executive, Makoto Uchida, took a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the financial woes, saying Nissan needed to become more efficient and respond better to market tastes, rising costs and other global changes. Fitch Ratings recently downgraded Nissan's credit outlook to "negative," citing worsening profitability, partly due to price cuts in the North American market. But it noted that it has a strong financial structure and solid cash reserves that amounted to 1.44 trillion yen ($9.4 billion). Nissan's share price has fallen to the point where it is considered something of a bargain. A report in the Japanese financial magazine Diamond said talks with Honda gained urgency after the Taiwan maker of iPhones Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., better known as Foxconn, began exploring a possible acquisition of Nissan as part of its push into the EV sector. The company has struggled for years following a scandal that began with the arrest of its former chairman Carlos Ghosn in late 2018 on charges of fraud and misuse of company assets, allegations that he denies. He eventually was released on bail and fled to Lebanon. Honda reported its profits slipped nearly 20% in the first half of the April-March fiscal year from a year earlier, as sales suffered in China. Toyota made 11.5 million vehicles in 2023, while Honda rolled out 4 million and Nissan produced 3.4 million. Mitsubishi Motors made just over 1 million. Even after a merger Toyota would remain the leading Japanese automaker. All the global automakers are facing potential shocks if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on threats to raise or impose tariffs on imports of foreign products, even from allies like Japan and neighboring countries like Canada and Mexico. Nissan is among the major car companies that have adjusted their supply chains to include vehicles assembled in Mexico. Meanwhile, analysts say there is an "affordability shift" taking place across the industry, led by people who feel they cannot afford to pay nearly $50,000 for a new vehicle. In American, a vital market for companies like Nissan, Honda and Toyota, that's forcing automakers to consider lower pricing, which will eat further into industry profits. ____ AP Auto Writer Tom Krisher contributed to this report from Detroit. The stylish Mazda 3 has a lot to offer compact-car shoppers, including great looks, a composed driving experience, and reasonable fuel economy from its base 2.0-liter engine. It's also one of the safest cars in its class, earning a perfect five stars in NHTSA crash testing and sterling crashworthiness and collision avoidance scores from the IIHS. Its standard features are forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure prevention. With mature styling, a premium interior, and an efficient hybrid powertrain option, the 2025 Honda Civic is a great option if safety is a concern since it aces almost all of the IIHS' crash tests and earns a five-star safety rating from the federal government. It also comes standard with adaptive cruise control, lane departure prevention, and forward collision warning with automatic emergency braking. The Civic falls short slightly in the IIHS' updated moderate overlap front test, which now accounts for rear passenger safety, but even so, it's one of the safest cars in its class. Reflective of parent company BMW, today's Mini Cooper is well constructed and features premium safety features that belie its small size, including automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning. Although the Mini hasn't been tested by NHTSA, the IIHS gives the Cooper its highest score of Good in the original driver-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, and side-impact tests. That said, the IIHS doesn't place the Cooper on its Top Safety Pick or Top Safety Pick+ lists since it hasn't been evaluated on the updated battery of passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, or side-impact tests. Expect the new-for-2025 Mini Cooper to earn decent crash ratings in those scenarios, especially since it shares its strong platform with the outgoing model. With its recent redesign, the Toyota Prius transformed from a frumpy little caterpillar to a stylish and efficient butterfly. It also became a very safe hybrid hatchback. Perfect scores in all of its government and IIHS crash tests, as well as a sophisticated system of collision avoidance technology, earn it top marks. It's also one of our favorite cars on the market, period, as evidenced by its status as a 2024 Edmunds Top Rated vehicle. The Honda Accord is among the safest midsize sedans on the market today thanks to excellent crashworthiness scores and a competent standard collision prevention system. It's a Top Safety Pick+, beating out rivals like the Hyundai Sonata, Kia K5, and Subaru Legacy, and the Accord also earns a perfect five-star rating from NHTSA. Honda's hybrid-intensive product planning is on full display here—all but the two lowest Accord trims have a hybrid powertrain—and it's also among the most spacious cars in its class. Like its Honda Accord rival, the Toyota Camry is also an IIHS Top Safety Pick+ with a five-star NHTSA rating. It also has a very impressive suite of driver assistance and safety technology, including lane departure prevention with active centering, full-speed adaptive cruise control, and automatic emergency braking. The Camry edges out the Accord in IIHS testing thanks to a more effective collision avoidance system, but both cars are remarkably well matched otherwise. The fully electric Hyundai Ioniq 6 offers excellent safety and collision prevention, with excellent scores across the entire line of IIHS tests. The Ioniq 6 hasn't been tested for rollover resistance by NHTSA, but it earned a four-star front safety rating and a five-star side-impact rating in government tests. Like most EVs, the Hyundai Ioniq 6 comes standard with forward collision warning, automatic emergency braking, and lane departure prevention. It also offers up to 342 miles of all-electric driving in its longest-range trim level. The Acura Integra is a close mechanical cousin to the Honda Civic, so it's no surprise it does well in both the IIHS' and NHTSA's crash tests. The luxury hatchback is a Top Safety Pick+ and earns a perfect five stars in government testing. The AcuraWatch safety suite is standard on the Integra, bringing automatic emergency braking, lane centering, lane departure prevention, and adaptive cruise control. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class is a safe option in the popular small luxury sedan segment thanks to its good scores in IIHS crash testing. Mercedes' best-selling sedan also comes standard with automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning, which helps it earn a Top Safety Pick award. However, it hasn't been tested by the NHTSA. Both the Genesis G80 and the fully electric Genesis Electrified G80 earn a Top Safety Pick+ score from the IIHS thanks to their good scores on the agency's crash tests, as well as a comprehensive suite of active safety features that avoided collisions with simulated pedestrians. The internal-combustion-engine G80 earned a perfect five-star safety rating from NHTSA, and although the Electrified G80 hasn't been tested by the feds just yet, it should likely excel in those tests too. The flagship Genesis G90 sedan competes with the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and BMW 7 Series, and the South Korean automaker clearly hasn't skimped on safety in its fight against the establishment. Although it hasn't been subjected to the NHTSA array of tests, it aced almost all of its IIHS tests, and a long list of standard active safety and driver assistance features sets it apart from the stingy German makes that charge extra for them. With handsome styling and a well-finished interior, the Volvo V60 is a very appealing station wagon for those looking for such a thing. It's also quite safe, with good crashworthiness scores in the IIHS' original moderate overlap front and side-impact scores. Unfortunately, since it hasn't been tested with the updated versions of those tests, it didn't earn this year's Top Safety Pick award, but it was called a Top Safety Pick+ in 2022. NHTSA also gives the V60 a five-star safety rating. Although the Mercedes-Benz E 450 All-Terrain isn't a traditional wagon — it follows the lifted almost-crossover formula shared with the Audi A6 Allroad and Volvo V90 Cross Country — we'll take what we can get in this dwindling category. The All-Terrain hasn't been tested by the IIHS or NHTSA, but a previous-generation E-Class earned a 2023 Top Safety Pick+ award, and Mercedes isn't the kind of company that goes backward when it comes to safety. The E 450 All-Terrain comes standard with automatic emergency braking and forward collision warning, though, at this price, Benz should just make other active safety features standard. With a five-star NHTSA safety rating, standard forward collision warning and emergency braking, and excellent IIHS crashworthiness scores on its original tests, the Audi A6 Allroad does a good job protecting people (both passengers and pedestrians) from crashes. However, since the IIHS hasn't subjected the Allroad to its updated side and moderate front crash criteria, it lost its Top Safety Pick+ status in 2022. Still, it should be a fine option for luxury longroof shoppers. Both the Ford Mustang coupe and convertible perform well in crash testing. The coupe received a five-star safety rating from NHTSA, and both variants scored decently on all the IIHS tests they've undergone. They also come standard with forward collision warning, lane departure prevention, and automatic emergency braking. However, the IIHS needs to test both models on its updated criteria before it will rate them. Although the government hasn't tested it, the Toyota GR86 aced all of its IIHS crashworthiness tests when it was new for the 2022 model year. Unfortunately, since it hasn't been subjected to the IIHS' updated testing since then, it lost its Top Safety Pick+ status. Still, this is a fun-to-drive, sporty coupe that comes standard with a long list of active safety features, and it's reasonably priced to boot. Mechanically identical to the Toyota GR86, the 2025 Subaru BRZ achieves the same safety ratings—who would have thought? It likewise received a Top Safety Pick+ score in 2022 that lapsed when the IIHS updated its criteria for 2023, but like the Toyota, it has a long list of active safety features to go along with its lightweight, rip-roaring sports car attitude. The Audi A5 lost its traditional two-door coupe body style after 2024, but the five-door Sportback body style remains before it's replaced later in 2025. Although it hasn't seen the IIHS' more stringent test regimen, its original crashworthiness scores were good enough to earn it a Top Safety Pick award as recently as 2022. The Sportback is the only variant to be tested by the government, where it earned a five-star safety rating. This story was produced by Edmunds and reviewed and distributed by Stacker. Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.