NYC’s mayor warms to Trump and doesn’t rule out becoming a RepublicanLAKE FOREST, Calif, Dec. 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: ATIF , the "Company" or "ATIF") announced today that the Company plans on changing its Nasdaq ticker symbol from "ATIF” to "ZBAI”. The Company plans to announce the date and detailed plans for the official stock ticker symbol change by the end of December 2024. No actions will be required by existing shareholders with respect to the planned ticker symbol change. The Company's Ordinary Shares will continue to be listed on Nasdaq and the CUSIP will remain unchanged. About ATIF ATIF Holdings Limited (NASDAQ: ATIF ) is a Lake Forest-based business consulting company that specializes in providing professional IPO, M&A advisory and post-IPO compliance services to small and medium-sized companies seeking to go public on a stock exchange in the United States. The company has a proven track record in successfully delivering comprehensive U.S. IPO consulting services to clients primarily in the United States but also internationally. The mission of ATIF is to provide one-stop, comprehensive consulting services that guide clients through the complex and often challenging process of going public. ATIF recognizes the complexity and challenges associated with the process of going public, and endeavors to simplify it while ensuring optimal outcomes for its clients through its comprehensive consulting services. ATIF has been awarded the "Golden Bauhinia Award", the highest award in the financial and securities industry in Hong Kong, for "Top 10 Best Listed Companies". Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe Harbor" provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, "estimated," "projected," Words such as "expect", "anticipate", "predict", "plan", "intend", "believe", "seek", "may", "will", "should", "future", "propose" and variations of these words or similar expressions (or the opposite of such words or expressions) are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements do not guarantee future performance, conditions or results and involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside the Company's control and may cause actual results or achievements to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. Important factors include future financial and operating results, including revenues, income, expenses, cash balances and other financial items; Ability to manage growth and expansion; Current and future economic and political conditions; The ability to compete in industries with low barriers to entry; The ability to obtain additional financing to fund capital expenditure in the future. Ability to attract new customers and further enhance brand awareness; Ability to hire and retain qualified management and key staff; Trends and competition in the financial advisory services industry; Pandemic or epidemic disease; Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent occurring events or circumstances, or changes in its expectations. Although the Company believes that the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, the Company cannot assure you that such expectations will turn out to be correct, and the Company cautions you that actual results may differ materially from the expected results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements we make. You should not interpret forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Forward-looking statements represent only the beliefs and assumptions of our management as of the date such statements are made. The above forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release. Contact Information [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
LAS VEGAS — It’s sometimes hard to figure how J.D. Struxness never won a state wrestling championship while at Lac qui Parle Valley High School in Madison, Minnesota He was a two-time runner up, settling for silver instead of gold, but he’s trying to make up for lost time at the National Finals Rodeo. He made another strong move Thursday, wrestling his steer to the ground in 3.9 seconds to finish in a three-way tie for second place during the eighth round. That was worth $20,285 and pushed his Las Vegas earnings past the $100,000 mark with two days remaining. “Coming into tonight with what they’ve done on that steer previously, he was not one of my picks to run out here,” said Struxness of Milan, Minnesota, now living in Perrin, Texas. “You can’t change what you have, so we came up with a game plan. It was one of those nights where we needed to let it all hang out if we wanted to have any sort of chance at all. The horses were great, and we got a great start. “We made a pretty darn good run on the ground, and we were able to speed that steer up a lot where we placed on him, which was the plan. It’s hard, but when you know you have a steer like that, you’ve got to do some extra work.” He is No. 2 in the world standings with $251,083 and trails leader Dakota Eldridge by $13,351. Struxness needs to continue to earn big paydays over the final two go-rounds if he has a chance to take the coveted Montana Silversmiths gold buckle awarded to the world champion. While he owns a slim lead over the No. 3 cowboy, Will Lummus, the latter is second in the aggregate race. The top eight cowboys based on 10-round cumulative times earn hefty bonuses, and the winner will pocket more than $86,000. That will go a long way toward crowing the titlist. Struxness has battled his way back after suffering a no-time on opening night, but he is ninth in the average. That’s why the final few nights of the NFR have been so vital to him. “This time of the week, we have to open up and take chances, so it’s first or last right now,” Struxness said. “We opened up tonight, took a chance on one we didn’t like very much at all, and it worked out.” That process includes working with his team, including fellow NFR bulldoggers Rowdy Parrott and Ty Erickson — who won the eighth round — and their hazer, Matt Reeves. They come up with an idea of what techniques to use. Most importantly is getting a good start, and having Erickson’s horse, Crush, in the mix helps; he’s the 2024 PRCA Steer Wrestling Horse of the Year. “Matt takes care of things until after that head catch, and I needed to get out in front of the steer to try to speed him up on the ground, be over him and have all my power there to clean him up,” he said. “This is one of those nights when the game plan got executed perfectly.” Struxness has wrestled for titles before. He knows the pressure that comes with it, but he also understands that performing at an optimum level is crucial. That’s been his plan since Day 1, and he’s just amping up the pressure on the field.
Qatar tribune Agencies Investors are expecting more gains for the US stock market in 2025 after two straight standout years, fueled by a solid economy supporting corporate profits, moderating interest rates and pro-growth policies from incoming president Donald Trump. The benchmark S&P 500 up over 23 percent year-to-date, even with a recent speed bump, and is on pace for its second straight year of gains exceeding 20 percent, lifted by megacap tech stocks and excitement over the business potential of artificial intelligence. Investors are more confident about the economy than this time a year ago, with consumers and businesses having absorbed higher interest rates and the Federal Reserve now lowering them - albeit by not as much as hoped. Corporate profits are also expected to be strong, with S&P 500 earnings projected to rise 14 percent in 2025, according to LSEG IBES. On the other side of the ledger, inflation remains stubborn, and Wall Street is wary of a rebound that could lead the Fed to change course on its easing cycle. Indeed, stocks pulled back sharply on Wednesday after the central bank projected fewer rate cuts next year as it braced for firmer inflation. Such prospects could become more likely if Trump implements tariffs on US imports that lead to higher consumer prices. Stock valuations, meanwhile, are around their steepest levels in more than three years, leaving greater potential for turbulence. “We’ve been on quite the tear coming off the lows back at the end of 2022. It’s been pretty eye-watering,” said Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers. “Animal spirits... are certainly running pretty wild right now, but you might need to temper that a little bit as you start to move through the year,” said Melson, who thinks the stock market could still produce solid gains of around 10 percent in 2025 if not the returns of the prior two years. Wall Street firms are mostly projecting gains for the market next year, with S&P 500 year-end targets ranging from 6,000 to 7,000. The index was last hovering around 5,900. Optimistic investors can point to a bull market that is neither old nor over-extended, by historic measures. The current bull market for the S&P 500 that began in October 2022 is less than half as long as the average length of the 10 prior ones, according to Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services. The S&P 500’s roughly 64 percent gain during this latest run trails the 108 percent median gain and 184 percent average rise of the prior bull markets, according to Lerner. “If you zoom out a little bit, yes, we have a lot of gains, but if you look at a typical bull market, it suggests that we still have further gains to go,” Lerner said. Other historic signs also bode well. The S&P 500 has gained an average of 12.3 percent following the eight instances of back-to-back 20 percent annual gains since 1950, according to Ryan Detrick, chief market strategist at Carson Group, compared to a 9.3 percent overall average increase over that time. The index increased six of the eight times. Bolstering the upbeat sentiment is the prevailing sense on Wall Street that the economy has weathered the rate hikes the Fed implemented starting in 2022 to quell inflation. A Natixis Investment Managers survey conducted in recent weeks found 73 percent of institutional investors said the US will avoid a recession in 2025. That’s a sharp turnaround from a year ago, when 62 percent projected such a downturn in the coming year. Citigroup’s economic surprise index, which measures how economic data performs versus expectations, has been solidly positive for the past two months, another rosy sign for investors. Adding to expectations of a solid economy, Trump is expected to pursue an agenda that includes tax cuts and deregulation that supports growth. “We’re leaving 2024 on pretty good footing, and we think there is some re-acceleration in 2025,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute. “Markets tend to front-run the economy, so they will position for that economic re-acceleration sooner rather than later.” However, stocks are also leaving 2024 at elevated valuations: The S&P 500 is trading at nearly 22 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, according to LSEG. That is well above its long-term average of 15.8, and not far from the 22.6 level it reached earlier this month, its highest since early 2021. Investors maintain that valuations can stay high for long periods and do not necessarily indicate imminent declines. But future gains may rest more on earnings growth, while higher valuations could make stocks more easily rattled by any disappointments. Risks include policy uncertainty such as Trump’s expected push to raise tariffs on imports from China and other trading partners, which analysts estimate could hurt corporate profits. Higher tariffs could also increase inflation, which is another worry for investors. The pace of inflation has fallen dramatically since hitting 40-year highs in 2022, but remains above the Fed’s 2 percent target. The latest reading of the consumer price index found a 2.7 percent annual inflation rate. “How low we can get rates is really going to be dependent on how low we can get inflation,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede. “If we see inflation settling out to the 3-ish percent range, we think the Fed’s not going to be as aggressive next year.” Glenmede is recommending investors take a neutral posture on overall portfolio risk, including for equities. “Investors should be what I would call cautiously optimistic,” Reynolds said. “We ... have an economy that’s showing signs of late-stage expansion alongside valuations that are pretty rich.” Copy 30/12/2024 10Jimmy Carter, nation's 39th president who became influential human rights advocate, dies
Where to Watch Bengals vs. Titans on TV or Streaming Live – Dec. 15'Global wealth tax must pay for climate reparation'With rookie QB Penix showing poise in starting debut, the Falcons again control their playoff hopes
Nicole Kidman commands the erotic office drama 'Babygirl'By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers urged a judge again Friday to throw out his hush money conviction, balking at the prosecution’s suggestion of preserving the verdict by treating the case the way some courts do when a defendant dies. They called the idea “absurd.” Related Articles National Politics | Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time National Politics | Ruling by a conservative Supreme Court could help blue states resist Trump policies National Politics | A nonprofit leader, a social worker: Here are the stories of the people on Biden’s clemency list National Politics | Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after she ‘sustained an injury’ on official trip to Luxembourg National Politics | Veteran Daniel Penny, acquitted in NYC subway chokehold, will join Trump’s suite at football game The Manhattan district attorney’s office is asking Judge Juan M. Merchan to “pretend as if one of the assassination attempts against President Trump had been successful,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a blistering 23-page response. In court papers made public Tuesday, District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office proposed an array of options for keeping the historic conviction on the books after Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork earlier this month asking for the case to be dismissed. They include freezing the case until Trump leaves office in 2029, agreeing that any future sentence won’t include jail time, or closing the case by noting he was convicted but that he wasn’t sentenced and his appeal wasn’t resolved because of presidential immunity. Trump lawyers Todd Blanche and Emil Bove reiterated Friday their position that the only acceptable option is overturning his conviction and dismissing his indictment, writing that anything less will interfere with the transition process and his ability to lead the country. The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined comment. It’s unclear how soon Merchan will decide. He could grant Trump’s request for dismissal, go with one of the prosecution’s suggestions, wait until a federal appeals court rules on Trump’s parallel effort to get the case moved out of state court, or choose some other option. In their response Friday, Blanche and Bove ripped each of the prosecution’s suggestions. Halting the case until Trump leaves office would force the incoming president to govern while facing the “ongoing threat” that he’ll be sentenced to imprisonment, fines or other punishment as soon as his term ends, Blanche and Bove wrote. Trump, a Republican, takes office Jan. 20. “To be clear, President Trump will never deviate from the public interest in response to these thuggish tactics,” the defense lawyers wrote. “However, the threat itself is unconstitutional.” The prosecution’s suggestion that Merchan could mitigate those concerns by promising not to sentence Trump to jail time on presidential immunity grounds is also a non-starter, Blanche and Bove wrote. The immunity statute requires dropping the case, not merely limiting sentencing options, they argued. Blanche and Bove, both of whom Trump has tabbed for high-ranking Justice Department positions, expressed outrage at the prosecution’s novel suggestion that Merchan borrow from Alabama and other states and treat the case as if Trump had died. Blanche and Bove accused prosecutors of ignoring New York precedent and attempting to “fabricate” a solution “based on an extremely troubling and irresponsible analogy between President Trump” who survived assassination attempts in Pennsylvania in July and Florida in September “and a hypothetical dead defendant.” Such an option normally comes into play when a defendant dies after being convicted but before appeals are exhausted. It is unclear whether it is viable under New York law, but prosecutors suggested that Merchan could innovate in what’s already a unique case. “This remedy would prevent defendant from being burdened during his presidency by an ongoing criminal proceeding,” prosecutors wrote in their filing this week. But at the same time, it wouldn’t “precipitously discard” the “meaningful fact that defendant was indicted and found guilty by a jury of his peers.” Prosecutors acknowledged that “presidential immunity requires accommodation” during Trump’s impending return to the White House but argued that his election to a second term should not upend the jury’s verdict, which came when he was out of office. Longstanding Justice Department policy says sitting presidents cannot face criminal prosecution . Other world leaders don’t enjoy the same protection. For example, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on trial on corruption charges even as he leads that nation’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza . Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records . Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies. In their filing Friday, Trump’s lawyers citing a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges . “Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote Wednesday on Truth Social. Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes. Since the election, special counsel Jack Smith has ended his two federal cases , which pertained to Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and allegations that he hoarded classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. A separate state election interference case in Fulton County, Georgia, is largely on hold. Trump denies wrongdoing in all. Trump had been scheduled for sentencing in the hush money case in late November. But following Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, Merchan halted proceedings and indefinitely postponed the former and future president’s sentencing so the defense and prosecution could weigh in on the future of the case. Merchan also delayed a decision on Trump’s prior bid to dismiss the case on immunity grounds. A dismissal would erase Trump’s conviction, sparing him the cloud of a criminal record and possible prison sentence. Trump is the first former president to be convicted of a crime and the first convicted criminal to be elected to the office.
Liquid AI closes $250 mln early-stage funding round led by AMD
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