Arkansas WR Andrew Armstrong declares for NFL draft, skipping bowl
REDMOND, Wash. , Dec. 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly dividend of $0.83 per share. The dividend is payable March 13, 2025 , to shareholders of record on Feb. 20, 2025 . The ex-dividend date will be Feb. 20, 2025 . Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT" @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/microsoft-announces-quarterly-dividend-302321718.html SOURCE Microsoft Corp. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — CJ Donaldson had two short rushing touchdowns and West Virginia became bowl eligible with a 31-21 victory over UCF on Saturday. Garrett Greene threw a TD pass in his final home game and Jahiem White added a short rushing score for the Mountaineers (6-5, 5-3 Big 12). Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.(Excerpted from the autobiography of MDD Peiris, Secretary to the Prime Minister) In June 1975, the Prime Minister was honoured by the international community with two important assgnments. The first was by the International Labour Organization (ILO), where she was invited to make the keynote address to the new ILO sessions opening in Geneva. The second was by the United Nations where she was invited to make the keynote address at the First UN International Conference on Women to be held in Mexico City, Mexico. She was also due to address The Group of 77 in Geneva. Manel Abeysekera of the Foreign Ministry and I, accompanied the Prime Minister. We had three major speeches to work on. We already had drafts ready, which were the result of much work and many refinements. But we had decided to finalize them in Geneva after two of our ablest diplomats, Susantha de Alwis and Karen Breckenridge perused them. Gamani Corea was to go through the Group of 77 speech in particular. Geneva We left for Geneva on June 8, 1975 by Swissair. En route we landed at Karachi at 1 a.m. and were met at the airport by the Minister of Education and Planning of the Province of Sindh and Mr. Aga Shahi, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary, who had been specially dispatched from Islamabad for the occasion. After an interesting conversation, we re-boarded and took-off. I worked through the Prime Minister’s Group of 77 speech on the plane. We couldn’t land in Geneva due to fog and were diverted to Zurich. That didn’t work either. Zurich was also fog bound. Finally, we landed at Basle. This of course meant hassle and delay. For me, this was a worry because we didn’t have much time to finalize the speeches. Susantha and his charming wife, Achala, put us all up in their official residence. Thanks to them, we were relaxed and comfortable. Breckenridge joined us later to work on the speeches. With so many important speeches, coming up so rapidly, work was hectic. Finally, by the time we finished working on the Group of 77 speech, It was 2.15 in the morning. On June10, at 10 a.m. the Prime Minister addressed the ILO and that afternoon at 3.45 p.m. the Group of 77. To our relief and satisfaction, both addresses were well received. There were several other appointments over the next couple of days, including meetings with the Director General of ILO and senior officials, as well as with various persons knowledgeable on issues of development. We had also to put the finishing touches on the Prime Minister’s address to the conference on Women. Manel and I worked on that. Mexico City We next left for Mexico. The journey took us through Houston where there was a refueling stop. Shirley Amerasinghe, our Permanent Representative at the UN was at the airport when we landed. I took the opportunity to show him the speech and inquired whether he had any views. Shirley thought the speech “excellent.” We were pleased that an experienced internationalist like Shirley had this opinion. At the airport at Mexico City, the Prime Minister and party were met by the Foreign Minister; Minister of the Interior; and the Minister for the Presidency and their wives. We were lodged at the Hotel Camino Real, which was both spacious and comfortable. On June 18 at 10.30 a.m. the Prime Minister called on President Ecchevaria. Talks between the two sides went on till I p.m. and encompassed both bilateral affairs and trade, as well as international affairs. The discussions were friendly and open. There was some delay due to translations. At 1.30 p.m. the President hosted the Prime Minister and delegation to lunch. The Mexican Cabinet; the Chief Justice and Judges of the Supreme Court; other local dignitaries and the diplomatic corps were present. After coming back to the hotel I telephoned Jayantha Dhanapala of the Foreign Service, at our Embassy in Washington and read out the text of a long statement, which I had drafted for the Sri Lanka newspapers. Since we didn’t have an embassy in Mexico, communications were a problem. The Prime Minister’s address itself to the conference went off very well and we believe that she received somewhat more than the customary compliments paid to speakers on such occasions. Our stay in Mexico, though brief was a crowded one with lunches, cultural shows and some sightseeing thrown in which included a visit to the excellent national museum. At one of these lunches hosted by Princess Ashraf, the sister of the Shah of Iran, and which included Ms. Imelda Marcos, I was one of the very few males present. The conversation was wide ranging and interesting with an emphasis on art, culture and social issues. Just before we left for home, Mr. Olof Palme, Prime Minister of Sweden called on the Prime Minister in her hotel. The youthful looking Mr. Palme had a reputation for being a radical. He had participated in marches and demonstrations in Sweden against the American intervention in the Vietnam War. At the discussions, he displayed a quiet, soft-spoken style. The Mexican Minister of Trade called on the Prime Minister before her departure. At this discussion Mexico agreed to issue licenses for a larger quantity of Sri Lankan cinnamon. At the airport, Valentina Teresckova, the Soviet woman cosmonaut came to meet the Prime Minister. It was a meeting between the first woman in space and the first woman Prime Minister. Katchativu and the settlement of issues with India From, about 1973, the Prime Minister was turning her attention to solving the only two outstanding issues with India, that of the ownership of the Island of Katchativu off the Northern coast of Sri Lanka; and that of the remaining 150,000 settlers of Indian origin in the country, which had not been covered by the Sirima-Shastri Pact. Katchativu was a tiny barren island in a part of the sea between Sri Lanka and India where fishermen of both countries engaged in fishing. At certain times of the year, Indian fishermen used to dry their nets on this rocky island. There was also a Catholic festival held there annually by the Sri Lanka Church, attended mostly by fishermen and their families. Katchativu was therefore being used for different purposes by the fishermen of both countries. Traditionally, however, Sri Lanka always considered the tiny island hers. The difference of views with India lay in the fact that there was no legal resolution of ownership. The issue was most important to a small country like Sri Lanka. India was one of the largest countries in the World. To Sri Lanka, it was considered vital to demarcate her maritime boundary in the North, and for this too the status of Katchativu was important. This was furthermore an area, which due to fishing by people of both countries, it was very necessary to properly demarcate the maritime boundary in order to minimize disputes. The law of the Sea Conference and the proposed 200 mile limit of sea which was to come within the sovereignty of countries was a factor which added to the importance of the resolution of this issue. Official contacts were therefore made with India, and a process of discussions begun. To complicate matters for us, it was discovered that some vitally important papers on the subject were missing from the Foreign Ministry files. One would not however like to speculate on a matter such as this. However, papers available in the National Archives helped. The Prime Minister in her meetings and contacts with Mrs. Gandhi had broached the necessity of resolving the outstanding issues with India. The two Prime Ministers got on well together and had established considerable rapport, a relationship going back the good relations between the Bandaranaike and Nehru families. Mrs. Bandaranaike was therefore keen that the existing favourable political configuration in the two countries should be used without delay to resolve our common problems. The Indian Prime Minister agreed. She had enormous problems on her hands including political turmoil, separatist tendencies and guerilla action in several parts of the country. The problems with Sri Lanka were not intractable ones, and she herself obviously thought that the time had come to get them out of the way and have some degree of stability and peace on her Southern border. A friendly Sri Lanka was in India’s interest. The virulent anti-Indian rhetoric by the JVP during 1969-71 which included the holding of clandestine classes for its cadres where an important lesson was on “Indian domination”, was a recent demonstration of the potential to inspire fear and hatred. This was another factor taken into account by Mrs. Bandaranaike in developing a policy on the quick resolution of problems with India. The two sides therefore, engaged in a process of discussions. These discussions were ongoing in a quiet manner when in mid-1974 India exploded a nuclear device in the Rajasthan desert. A cacophony of condemnation arose all over the world. The shrill condemnation that followed could not be dignified with the word “chorus.” India was depicted in the world’s press, and particularly in the Western press as some kind of sanctimonious humbug which preached non-violence, Ahimsa and arms control on the one hand, but practiced something else on the other. It was at the height of this situation that one day I dropped in at Temple Trees in the morning to get some urgent letters signed by the Prime Minister. When I reached there, I found the Prime Minister seated at the large dining table attending to work with W T Jayasinghe. I was about to take a seat in the verandah, when she saw me and invited me in. I found that WT was also finishing his work. He asked me whether I could give him a lift back to the Ministry, since he had sent his car somewhere else. I said that it wouldn’t be a problem. Both of us finished soon thereafter and WT loaded a large number of files into my car. We set off soon thereafter for the five-minute run to Republic Square. During the trip, WT told me that the Prime minister was sending a tiff note about the testing of the nuclear device and that she had signed the letter. I was quite appalled. I told WT, that I did not know the content and tone of the letter, since I had not seen it, but that I hoped that the close relationship between the two Prime Ministers and the on-going discussions on Katchativu and other matters had been taken into account in drafting the letter. I ended by saying that I hoped that our overall national interest had been properly assessed in sending this communication at this time. W T became somewhat agitated by what I said. He had the objectivity to say, “No I don’t think we had thought about matters to that extent.” I shrugged. He then pulled out the file and showed me the letter. I took one look and said that we might as well abandon our on-going discussions with India. The letter was a typical foreign Ministry sectoral, one-dimensional draft, which had only a thought of the issues of non-proliferation and non-alignment. It was clear that no thought had been given to the course of bilateral relations, strategic considerations, or an assessment of Sri Lanka’s overall national interest. WT by now was considerably alarmed. We had now reached the end of our short journey. He said, he wanted to come to my room to discuss matters further. Indeed, by now, he was convinced that the letter was a mistake. He wanted me to do an alternate draft. I said that I would do so only if he would place both drafts before the Prime Minister, not telling her who drafted the alternative, until she had decided which one to send. This was too important a matter for any bias to creep in. I thereupon changed the whole tenor of the letter from one of protestations and criticism to what I thought was a more balanced approach. India was congratulated on her achievements in Science and Technology and our satisfaction at this record mentioned. But the Prime Minister urged caution on going the nuclear route and she said that she was encouraged by the Indian Prime Minister’s statement that India would not develop a nuclear arsenal. (The various reasons why India and Pakistan developed nuclear weapons later would be a matter for study, debate and even controversy. But this was 1974, and we had to react at that time.) Suitable reference was also made to the issue of the Non-Aligned stance on nuclear proliferation. The whole tenor or the letter was an expression or admiration and recognition of India’s achievements in science and technology, but at the same time a friendly expression of concern about the prospect of nuclear proliferation. WT’ thought that my draft was much better. I soon forgot about it amidst other work. A few days later WT walked into my room. He had done what I had suggested and the two drafts had been placed before the Prime Minister. She had immediately reacted, and had angrily asked, who had done the first draft. She had stated that the second draft was the one that really reflected her views, and that she was misled into signing the first. It was only at this point that WT had mentioned who the author of the second draft was. This whole episode brings up some interesting points. In the first instance, it was by sheer accident that there was ever a second draft. The earlier letter would have been disastrous. This surmise indeed was subsequently proved by the Indian Prime Minister’s warm and lengthy response to the Prime Minister’s letter. This was a time, when Mrs. Gandhi was having serious internal problems in India too. The reply was an outpouring from the heart of a beleaguered leader to one whom she could trust. Amongst many candid and personal matters contained in the reply, there was gratitude expressed for Mrs. Bandaranaike’s understanding and vision. The relationship could have ended up being quite different.
(Bloomberg) — Business activity in the euro area unexpectedly shrank this month, fueling concerns about the prospects for Europe’s economy and suggesting the European Central Bank will need to be more aggressive with interest-rate cuts. The euro fell to its lowest level since 2022 against the dollar after the purchasing managers gauge of service providers and manufacturers weakened. Political crises in Germany and France, as well as the threat of tariffs from a Donald Trump presidency in the US, also weighed on the currency. Here are some of the charts that appeared on Bloomberg this week on the latest developments in the global economy, markets and geopolitics: Europe Euro-area business activity unexpectedly shrank in November, a sign of the damage being wrought by political chaos and heightened discord over trade. The euro fell to its weakest levels since 2022 against the dollar as traders priced in more interest-rate cuts from the European Central Bank. The chance of a 50 basis-point reduction in December rose to 50%, from about 15% at Thursday’s close. UK inflation accelerated more than forecast in October to well above the Bank of England’s 2% target. Consumer-price inflation rose 2.3% from a year earlier after a jump in energy bills. Services inflation — which is being monitored closely by rate-setters for signs of domestic pressures — remained elevated at 5%. A key gauge of euro-zone wages jumped by the most since the common currency was introduced in 1999 — complicating the ECB’s plans for interest-rate cuts as inflation eases. Third-quarter negotiated pay rose 5.4% from a year ago. That’s up from 3.5% in the previous three months and was largely driven by Germany. A dormant stock market, brittle currency, crisis-ridden political system, stagnant economy — so was the landscape in Europe even before Donald Trump won election in the US. Now, the continent faces new trade tariffs against its biggest companies and investment outflows as Trump’s plans to cut taxes and gut regulation make US stocks more attractive. Add to that the growing angst around Germany’s upcoming snap election and escalating Russia tensions and even the most optimistic investors are struggling to stay upbeat. Asia Japanese firms in China are becoming more pessimistic about the world’s second-biggest economy, with about two-thirds saying it’s getting worse and almost half scaling back or halting their investments. About 64% of Japanese companies said the Chinese economy is faring worse than last year, according to the latest survey from the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China. South Korea’s household debt grew the most in three years last quarter, highlighting a development that kept the central bank from pivoting on policy until last month. Mortgage loans, a major component of the credit, also rose by the most since the third quarter of 2021. US & Canada Housing starts declined in October to the slowest pace in three months as hurricanes exacerbated an easing in construction activity more generally. Residential construction has struggled to gain traction this year against a backdrop of a growing number of new homes for sale and mortgage rates near 7%. Trump’s vows to “frack, frack, frack” are about to collide with a global crude glut that’s set to, finally, temper record shale production. Inflation in Canada rose by more than forecast and underlying price pressures reaccelerated, hiccups that may dissuade policymakers from a second straight 50 basis-point cut to interest rates next month. The first acceleration of headline inflation in five months may bolster a case for the Bank of Canada to reduce borrowing costs gradually, after officials stepped up the pace of easing in October. Emerging Markets Years of runaway inflation are testing the physical limits of Turkey’s cash-centric economy as its biggest banknotes become increasingly inadequate to cover even daily spending. The highest-denominated bill, for 200 liras ($5.80), now represents more than 80% of all cash in circulation, up from 16% in 2010, according to central bank data. After losing almost all its purchasing power, each note is worth enough to buy two filter coffees at Starbucks. Mexico’s inflation decelerated in early November while the economy continues to lose momentum, giving the central bank room to cut interest rates for a fourth straight meeting next month. World Ukrainian forces earlier this week carried out their first strike on a border region in Russia using Western-supplied missiles as President Vladimir Putin approved an updated nuclear doctrine expanding the conditions for using atomic weapons. The news sent investors scrambling into some of the world’s safest assets. Iceland’s central bank accelerated its easing campaign, while South Africa also cut rates. Bank Indonesia warned there is less scope to lower them. Hungary, Angola, Paraguay and Egypt kept borrowing costs steady. Turkey also held while implying a cut could soon be justified due to slowing inflation. —With assistance from Irina Anghel, Alice Atkins, Maya Averbuch, Taylan Bilgic, Kevin Crowley, Robert Jameson, Lucia Kassai, Sam Kim, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, James Mayger, Henry Meyer, Michael Msika, Tom Rees, Michael Sasso, Zoe Schneeweiss, Mark Schroers, Patrick Sykes, Randy Thanthong-Knight, Alex Vasquez and David Wethe.Australia Dumps Plan for Fines for Social Media Giants Enabling Misinformation
High political drama unfolded on Wednesday in South Korea with the country almost thrown into an indefinite period of martial law, a move which was swiftly overturned by the country’s lawmakers. While that decision could have had a damaging effect on the country’s advanced tech industry, halfway across the world, political developments in key South Korean ally, the US, which announced a new series of curb on chip exports to China this week is now expected to have only a limited impact on Korean chipmakers, mainly Samsung Electronics. On Monday the US announced a third set of restrictions on exports of chips to China, including curbs on China-bound shipments of high-bandwidth memory chips, necessary for high-end applications like AI training; new curbs on 24 additional chipmaking tools and three software tools; and new export curbs on chipmaking equipment made in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia, reported Reuters. The export ban covers HBM with a memory bandwidth density greater than 2 gigabytes per second per square millimetre. SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and US-based Micron Technology are the only three chipmakers that make the HBM chips, and they will be barred from selling HBMs to China starting December 31. SK Hynix HBM3E Currently however, most of the up-to-date, high-value HBMs are sold not to China, but the US. Samsung reportedly generates about 20 per cent of its HBM chip sales from China. SK Hynix dominates the HBM market with a share of approximately 52 per cent, and supplies most of its products to TSMC in Taiwan, the majority of whose clients are based in the US, including Nvidia. Samsung, with a share of about 42 per cent in the HBM market, has reportedly been selling older HBM2 and HBM2E chips to China, as the country seeks to stockpile the advanced chips ahead of the enforcement of the US sanctions. The new curbs though would pressure Samsung to diversify its clientele and make up for lost orders from China. “Samsung should work to reduce uncertainties and hurry to secure deals with major US tech firms to supply its HBM3E and HBM4 chips,” Ahn Ki-hyun, an official at the Korea Semiconductor Industry Association said, according to the Korea Herald. While SK Hynix is the main supplier of the latest fifth-generation HBM3E chips to Nvidia, Samsung has hinted it will supply to Nvidia soon. Currently, the tech giant is delivering its HBM3E chips to AMD. Both Samsung and SK Hynix are expected to launch the next-generation HBM4 next year. “For now, the regulation is largely considered to have a limited impact. But given the potential of HBM products and the current market trends, the industry is missing out on potential customers,” an industry official said.
By Taylor Nicioli , CNN The disappearance of pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart more than 87 years ago has remained one of the most captivating mysteries in history, with a handful of explorers devoted to scouring the seas for any clue to her final whereabouts. Sonar imagery captured in January revealed a plane-shaped anomaly on the seafloor about 161km from the Pacific Ocean's Howland Island - the next location where Earhart was expected to land before she was declared lost at sea. The detection renewed a worldwide interest in the mystery and left many questioning whether Earhart's missing Lockheed 10-E Electra had finally been found. After returning to the site on November 1, Deep Sea Vision - an ocean exploration company based in Charleston, South Carolina, that captured the original sonar image - has identified the object to be a natural rock formation. "Talk about the cruellest formation ever created by nature," said Tony Romeo, the company's CEO, a pilot and former US Air Force intelligence officer. "It's almost like somebody did set those rocks out in this nice little pattern of her plane, just to mess with somebody out there looking for her." Romeo said he was surprised the object wasn't at least a different plane or a man-made object. "We didn't pop any champagne bottles on the first time around, because we wanted to be 100 percent sure, (but) there was a somber moment," Romeo told CNN in a phone call. "I think everyone just kind of took a little bit of time, little space, and then we recollected ourselves ... and we got right back to work on searching some new areas that we wanted to search." Deep Sea Vision announced the update in an Instagram post on 6 November, saying its search continues. After discovering the rock formation, the expedition crew explored more than 2590 square kilometres for a search total of at least 19,943 square kilometres of ocean, Romeo said. While it was not the update the team expected, Romeo and other experts said that hope shouldn't be lost for finding closure one day for the aviation legend. The hunt for Earhart's plane continues The rock formation was more than 4877 metres underwater. Upon first discovery, the team's advanced autonomous underwater vehicle, or AUV, a device that maps the seabed using sonar technology, was about 500 metres away, Romeo said. The team sent out the AUV directly above the site in early November, producing a high-resolution image of the rock formation. "The mood was very jubilant on the way out," Romeo said. "We were excited [but] cautiously optimistic because we knew there was a possibility that [the anomaly] may not be what we thought it was, but obviously everybody was excited." It was a long wait for the AUV to get into position to scan the object - about 24 hours from launch until the team could see the data, Romeo said. After the anxious wait, the image surprisingly revealed that the object was a natural rock formation, he said. Romeo said other images further confirmed the rock formation, but the company is not yet releasing any material other than one sonar image, as a documentary on the expedition is in the works. The team may not return to the area to search farther until 2026, due to other missions, Romeo said. "It'll be some time before we get back out there," he added, "but we want to find it, and I believe we will." Meanwhile, other explorers are continuing their search, such as Nauticos, a deep ocean exploration company based in Kennebunkport, Maine, that has conducted operations for the lost aircraft in the past. Nauticos recently finished an analysis of what it believes to be high-probability areas for where the plane could be found based on radio data , and the remaining area left to be searched could possibly be covered in one more expedition, said David Jourdan, cofounder and president of Nauticos. When Deep Sea Vision first announced the anomaly, Jourdan cautioned against using sonar imagery to identify anything on the seafloor. "On our website, we say, 'Long range sonar images have historically proven to be deceiving, especially in areas with geological formations.' That's a polite way of saying it could be just a pile of rocks. ... Which turns out to be the case," Jourdan said recently in an email. Finding objects on the seafloor is like "searching for a contact lens on a football field in the dark using a penlight for illumination. It can be done, but it takes careful, methodical work," he added. "The quality of the sonar data is important, as is keeping track of where you searched and not missing any spots along the way." Earhart's mysterious disappearance Conspiracy theories have developed since the aviator's disappearance, but the US government suspects that Earhart and her navigator crashed into the Pacific when the plane ran out of fuel. Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan took off from Lae, Papua New Guinea, on 2 July, 1937. The aviator's last radio transmissions grew stronger as she got closer to Howland Island, indicating she was nearing it before she disappeared, according to Dorothy Cochrane, a curator for general aviation in the aeronautics department of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The pair was declared lost at sea after the US government conducted a 16-day search. Cochrane said she was not surprised at the setback in the hunt for Earhart's plane. "I'd like to hope that they can find it, just to put it all to rest. But in reality, it's a big ask. It really is a difficult thing to do," she said. "It is one of the greatest unsolved mysteries ever, I used to say back in the day of the 20th century. Now we're well into the 21st century. There was no one who had the cachet of an Earhart, [who] was being followed worldwide at the time and making such dramatic flights." Romeo said he believes the search will only get easier as technology advances. "In some ways, I'm even more excited now about it, right? It was like the plot thickens, and the riddle is still unsolved... I hope this inspires other people to maybe go look for her or at least learn about her and her story," he said. "I want to see the plane found. She's out there. She didn't just disappear into thin air." - CNNNo. 22 St. John's, Georgia pack busy schedule with game on SundayA top US official sought to quell growing concern Sunday over reported drone sightings in the country's northeast, reiterating there was no known security threat as authorities monitor the situation. President Joe Biden's administration has faced mounting criticism for not clearly identifying origins of the objects seen hovering over parts of New York and New Jersey. The criticism has come even from Biden's own party, with top Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer calling Sunday for action to make it easier for federal, state and local authorities to work together to detect and if need be "bring down" any drone seen to pose a threat. Video footage of mysterious airborne phenomena recently has clogged social media, with spottings also reported in Maryland and Virginia. "Some of those drone sightings are, in fact, drones. Some are manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program. "But there's no question that drones are being sighted," he said, noting there are more than one million registered across the United States. "I want to assure the American public that we are on it," he said. "If we identify any foreign involvement or criminal activity, we will communicate with the American public accordingly. Right now, we are not aware of any." Even as Mayorkas sought to reassure the public, Boston police announced Sunday that two Massachusetts men had been arrested the previous night for allegedly conducting a "hazardous drone operation" near the city's Logan International Airport. State police were conducting a search for a third suspect, who authorities said fled the scene. Schumer, in a letter to Mayorkas Sunday, urged the Department of Homeland Security to immediately deploy special drone-detection technology across New York and New Jersey, since traditional radar struggles to detect such small objects. He also called for passage of legislation to explicitly authorize state and local law enforcement to work with federal agencies to detect and "bring down drones that threaten critical facilities or mass gatherings." Jim Himes, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, meanwhile expressed frustration at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over its communications around the issue. "The answer 'we don't know' is not a good enough answer," he told "Fox News Sunday." "When people are anxious... people will fill a vacuum with, you know, their fears and anxieties and conspiracy theories," he said, calling for the FAA to hold public briefings. White House national security spokesman John Kirby had previously said the aircraft could be lawfully operated planes or helicopters mistaken for drones. "While there is no known malicious activity occurring, the reported sightings there do, however, highlight a gap in authorities," he said Thursday, calling for Congress to pass new legislation to "extend and expand existing counter-drone authorities." New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Sunday that authorities had agreed to send a drone detection system to her state. "I am grateful for the support, but we need more. Congress must pass a law that will give us the power to deal directly with the drones," she said on X. On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump urged federal authorities to clearly identify the drones' origins. "Let the public know, and now. Otherwise, shoot them down!!!" he posted on social media. As the price of drones has fallen -- small quadcopter models with Wi-Fi camera capability can be purchased for as little as $40 -- their numbers and popularity have soared, making their presence in American skies a greater concern. acb/des/bbk/mlm
Pelicans' Zion Williamson (hamstring) to practice next week