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ORCHARD PARK (AP) — Josh Allen reflected on Buffalo’s many offseason critics and doubters when asked about the Bills achieving their latest milestones while sewing up the AFC’s No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the unraveling and undisciplined New York Jets on Sunday. It was a the Bills quarterback’s “I told you so moment,” even though Allen elected not to use those exact words. “It speaks to the staff that we’ve got here, the guys that we’ve got in this locker room, how this team is put together and the culture that we have,” Allen said. “We didn’t really pay attention to the preseason notions, but we heard them and we saw them and we knew what people were saying. "But it had no effect on us.” Well, that might be a stretch when it comes to motivation. What’s unquestioned is how Allen and the Bills (13-3) overcame a young, patchwork roster following the offseason departure of six of eight team captains — including Stefon Diggs being traded to Houston — to run away with their fifth consecutive AFC East title and win a franchise-best 13 games for the fifth time in team history, and third since 2020. Coach Sean McDermott didn’t leave much doubt as to who deserves the most credit for leading the Bills to their sixth consecutive playoff berth, and helping them set the single-season franchise records for points (509) and touchdowns (63). “I think Josh Allen continues to show why he should be the MVP,” McDermott said. “I’ve been around this league long enough to know to see MVP every year for many years. And what he has done on this team and this organization in this community — and no offense to anybody else — but I’ve got a hard time believing that someone’s done more.” Allen threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score to become the NFL’s first player to score 40 touchdowns in five consecutive seasons. He did so in an outing Buffalo blew the game open by capitalizing on two Jets turnovers and scoring three touchdowns over a 5:01 span in the closing minutes of the third quarter. Buffalo’s defense forced three takeaways overall and sacked Aaron Rodgers four times, including a 2-yard loss for a safety in the second quarter. Nothing went right in what became a comedy of errors for Rodgers and the Jets (4-12). New York will finish with five or fewer wins for the seventh time over a 14-season playoff drought — the NFL’s longest active streak. “It’s kind of like the season, it just got away from us. Too many games got away from us,” said Rodgers, who finished 12 of 18 for 112 yards and two interceptions before being pulled in favor of Tyrod Taylor with Buffalo leading 40-0. “We were moving the ball well and then just hit a wall. And that’s kind of been the season.” Rodgers, who entered the game with 499 career TD passes and looking to become just the fifth player to reach 500, was instead shut out and became the NFL’s most sacked quarterback. The 41-year-old has now been sacked 568 times , moving ahead of Tom Brady (565) and into first place on the career list. Taylor accounted for all of New York’s points, with a 9-yard touchdown pass to Garrett Wilson and a 20-yarder to Tyler Conklin. Discipline was an issue for a Jets team that fell to 2-9 since Jeff Ulbrich took over as interim coach. New York finished with 16 accepted penalties for 120 yards. “It’s frustrating, it’s embarrassing, it’s maddening. It’s all of that,” Ulbrich said. Allen had a short and efficient outing, finishing 16 of 27 for 182 yards with a 30-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper and a 14-yarder to Keon Coleman before giving way to backup Mitchell Trubisky with Buffalo leading 33-0 through three quarters. And Trubisky piled on by completing a 69-yard touchdown pass to practice squad call-up Tyrell Shavers 2:23 into the fourth quarter. Shavers became the 13th Bills player to catch a touchdown pass, matching the single-season NFL record, to validate the “everybody eats” mantra Allen and the offense used to approach this season. The Bills defense enjoyed a dominating performance to snap a shaky three-game stretch in which it combined to allow 1,357 yards, 86 first downs and 107 points. “I wouldn’t say need ... and I don’t want to say reassurance, either,” said A.J. Epenesa, who sacked Rodgers for the safety. “But it just shows that this is what we can do and this is the standard that needs to be upheld.” Allen’s 1-yard score was the 65th rushing TD of his career, matching the team record held by Thurman Thomas. ... James Cook scored on a 4-yard run for his 15th TD rushing of the season, one short of the Bills' single-season record set by O.J. Simpson in a 14-game season in 1975. Cook matched Allen, who scored 15 last year. ... Wilson reached 1,000 yards receiving for the third straight year to start his career, the first Jets player to do so and the 10th player in NFL history to accomplish the feat. Jets: Close the season by hosting the Miami Dolphins. Bills: Play their regular-season finale at the New England Patriots.

It is crucial for the public to exercise caution and discernment when encountering potentially misleading information, especially on social media platforms where false news spreads rapidly. By verifying information from trusted sources and refraining from spreading unverified claims, individuals can help combat the spread of fake news and protect themselves and others from falling victim to misinformation.In particular, the former Foreign Minister praised the EU's recent efforts to strengthen its strategic autonomy and assert its influence on the global stage. He noted that the EU has taken a more assertive approach in its relations with China, including calling for greater market access, investment reciprocity, and respect for human rights. These steps, he argued, are necessary to ensure a level playing field and promote a more balanced partnership between the two sides.

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Jeremiyah Love basked in both his accomplishment and the congratulatory screams and shouts of his teammates. Moments earlier, the sophomore running back had taken the handoff from Riley Leonard, accelerated through a hole and sprinted 68 yards into the end zone. One hundred years, one month, and five days — or, for the exacting, 36,561 days — later, the descendants found the proper way to pay homage to their forefathers. By doing what their ancestors did so long ago: Beating their forever rival. No. 6 Notre Dame reinforced its claim for a berth in the College Football Playoff by routing previously unbeaten No. 19 Army, 49-14, Saturday night at Yankee Stadium. In what was a mostly complete performance, the Fighting Irish (10-1) rolled up 464 yards of total offense against an Army (9-1) squad that entered the contest allowing opponents 10.3 points per game, which was tied for the fewest in the nation with Ohio State. Notre Dame finished the game with 275 yards on the ground and five rushing touchdowns. Love ran for 130 yards and two touchdowns on seven carries. Jadarian Price added 53 yards on 10 carries and two scores. Aneyas Williams recorded 62 yards and a touchdown on three carries. They weren’t the Four Horsemen, but the triumvirate more than sufficed. The nationally televised primetime showcase was the centerpiece of Notre Dame’s centennial celebration of the school’s 13-7 win over Army at the Polo Grounds on Oct. 18, 1924. What took place over the course of three hours in the ballyard in the Bronx on a clear, cool night bore little resemblance to the epochal matchup in the Polo Grounds. Because, in part, the forward pass was utilized. Particularly by the Irish as Leonard threw touchdown passes of 28 yards to Jordan Faison and 6 yards to Love on Notre Dame’s first two possessions of the game. Leonard completed 9-of-11 passes for 130 yards and the two scores in the first half. The senior finished the game 10-for-13 for 148 yards and two touchdowns before being replaced by sophomore Steve Angeli late in the third quarter. Angeli was 4-for-5 for 41 yards. The Black Knights cut the deficit to 14-7 early in the second quarter on quarterback Bryson Daily’s 4-yard touchdown run. And when Army stopped Love on fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line on the ensuing possession, a murmur rumbled amongst the partisan crowd. Could the visiting Black Knights — Notre Dame was the home team for this game — pull the upset? The Irish answered the question definitively by forcing Army into a three-and-out and, when they regained possession of the ball, Love atoned with a 14-yard touchdown jaunt which was the culmination of Notre Dame’s three-play, 41-yard drive. Price’s 2-yard touchdown run with 26 seconds remaining sent the Irish into halftime with a 28-7 lead. Notre Dame had an insurmountable advantage. So with the result essentially accounted for, it was time for the Irish to do some resume building and statement making ahead of the playoff games they hope to find themselves in. And on the first play from scrimmage in the second half Love began and finished his 68-yard expedition through Army’s defense. Which was bookended by Price’s 10-yard touchdown run at the end of the third quarter that stretched Notre Dame's lead to 42-7. Williams’ 58-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter ballooned the Irish’s advantage to 49-7. Daily’s 1-yard touchdown plunge with 22 seconds left ended the scoring. Daily accounted for 139 of Army’s 207 rushing yards. He also completed 4-of-8 passes for 26 yards. The Black Knights totaled 233 yards of offense. Notre Dame kicker Mitch Jeter missed a 48-yard field goal at the end of the first half, and had his 30-yard attempt midway through the third blocked.Lowe scores career-high 22, leads Pitt over LSU 74-63 in Greenbrier Tip-Off

NAGPUR: The Sangh Parivar unleashed its well-oiled machinery to power BJP-led Mahayuti to a landslide victory. The Nagpur-headquartered organisation quietly mobilised its vast network of cadres, organising over 60,000 voter meetings statewide to counter opposition narratives and consolidate support under the campaign banner - 'Sajagraho' (Be vigilant, be awake). Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, in an exclusive interview to TOI on Nov 6, acknowledged BJP sought Sangh's help to dispel "fake narratives" of Congress and its allies on issues like reservations, 'vote-jihad' and constitutional integrity. Unprecedented victory, says senior RSS functionary While officially distancing itself from political activities, the Sangh celebrated the scale of Mahayuti's triumph. "This is an unprecedented victory that ensures BJP's sway over Maharashtra. We didn't imagine Mahayuti would win a landslide victory. However, Sangh prefers to work from behind the curtains and let BJP celebrate while we focus on social work," said a top RSS functionary. The stakes were particularly high for RSS as it approaches its centenary next year. Winning Maharashtra was not just about political dominance, but also about ensuring a govt aligned with its ideological goals. Maharashtra Jharkhand Maharashtra Alliance View i Party View Seats: 288 Results Majority: 145 BJP+ 229 MVA 47 OTH 12 Results : 288 / 288 BJP+ WON Jharkhand Alliance View i Party View Seats: 81 Results Majority: 41 INDIA 56 NDA 24 OTH 1 Results : 81 / 81 INDIA WON Source: PValue Countering divisions and ensuring Hindu unity Sources reveal the RSS campaign aimed to counter opposition strategies that sought to fragment Hindu votes along caste and community lines. The agenda also addressed sensitive issues such as 'vote jihad' and religious conversions, without overtly echoing or endorsing BJP's slogan - 'batenge toh kitenge'. This proactive approach followed BJP's setback in LS polls, where a sharp dip in support from minority voters cost the party its majority. A senior RSS functionary remarked, "Elements trying to divide Hindus based on caste have failed. This victory reflects the people's rejection of such agendas." VHP and RSS frontal organisations in action Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), the second-largest organisation in the Sangh Parivar, also played a pivotal role. VHP general secretary Milind Parande confirmed their extensive campaigns encouraged voters to exercise their franchise wisely. While refraining from directly endorsing any party, VHP emphasised Hindu unity and urged voters to support candidates aligned with their cause. Frontal organisations like Lok Jagran Manch, comprising senior citizens, conducted grassroots outreach, distributing pamphlets and staging plays to promote 100% voter participation. Although the campaign avoided naming political parties, the messaging resonated with BJP's narrative of safeguarding religious identity and cultural heritage. While reports of Sangh-backed voter outreach are widespread, the RSS functionary denied direct involvement. "These activities are being undertaken by civil societies comprising swayamsevaks. They are working independently to raise voter awareness and promote their right to vote," he told TOI, distancing RSS and its fronts from explicit political messaging. A resurgence of civic responsibility One of the key objectives of RSS-led initiatives was to boost voter turnout . Using meetings, leaflets, and cultural programmes, the Sangh emphasised voting as both a right and a civic duty. "This wasn't just about political gains. Low voter turnout is detrimental to democracy. Our campaign was focused on awakening citizens to their responsibilities," said an RSS functionary. The quiet hand behind a public victory Mahayuti's landslide win underscores the influence of RSS, whose meticulous groundwork and large number of cadres helped BJP consolidate Hindu votes and neutralise divisive opposition strategies. As the Sangh approaches its 100th year, its role in shaping electoral outcomes while maintaining an official distance from politics remains one of its most defining and strategic strengths. Mahayuti's success not only secures its govt in Maharashtra but also reaffirms RSS's unparalleled ability to mobilise support for its ideological vision, ensuring its continued relevance in India's political landscape.

Overall, these recent developments in the tech industry underscore the complex and dynamic nature of the sector, where companies must navigate regulatory challenges, corporate governance issues, and market competition. As the investigation into Nvidia unfolds and Hundred Rivers Intelligent faces backlash, it is clear that transparency and ethical business practices are essential for long-term success in the ever-evolving tech landscape.Manchester United has a rich history of success, and fans have come to expect nothing less than excellence from the players who wear the iconic red jersey. However, in recent years, there have been concerns about the performance of some players who have failed to live up to expectations. Former Manchester United player, Rio Ferdinand, has spoken out about the need for the club to be ruthless in dealing with underperforming players.

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ubet casino The two-minute timeout. The transfer portal as de facto free agency. Collectives generating name, image and likeness (NIL) money for athletes becoming like a payroll. The impending arrival of revenue sharing. It didn't take long for Belichick to envision how a college program should look based on his own NFL experience. "I do think there are a lot of parallels," Belichick said. And that's at least partly why the six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach is now taking over at North Carolina. Years of rapid change at the have only increased the professionalization of college football across the country, with schools adjusting staffing to handle growing duties once seemingly more fitting for a pro team. UNC just happens to be making the most audacious of those bets, bringing in a 72-year-old who has never coached in college and asking him to build what amounts to a mini-NFL front office. But plenty could follow. "I really think there's going to be some of those guys that maybe don't have a job in the NFL anymore," Kansas State general manager Clint Brown said, "and now that this is going to be structured in a way where there is a cap that that's going to be something they're interested in." The rapid changes in college athletics have fueled that, notably with players able to transfer and play right away without sitting out a year and be paid through NIL endorsement opportunities in the past five years. Recruiting is now just as much about bringing in veteran talent through the portal as signing recruits out of high school, mirroring the NFL with free agency and the draft, respectively. And a bigger change looms with revenue sharing, the result of a $2.78 billion legal settlement to antitrust lawsuits. Specifically, that model will allow the biggest schools to establish a pool of about $21.5 million for athletes in the first year, with a final hearing in that case set for April 2025. It will be up to schools to determine how to distribute that money and in which sports, though football's role as the revenue driver in college sports likely means a prominent cut everywhere as a direct parallel to a professional team's salary cap. Throw all that together, and it's why coaches are adjusting their staffs like Florida's Billy Napier interviewing candidates to be the Gators' general manager. "We're built to do it now," Napier said. "The big thing here is that we're getting ready to be in a business model. We have a cap. We have contracts. We have negotiation. We have strategy about how we distribute those funds, and it's a major math puzzle. "We're going to build out a front office here in the next couple of months, and it's primarily to help us manage that huge math problem," Napier added. "There'll be a ton of strategy around that. I'm looking forward to it." Still, that also explains why Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule, the former head coach of the NFL's Carolina Panthers, said: "This job as a head coach is a juggernaut. There's way more to do here than I had to do in the NFL." And it explains why the Tar Heels are betting on Belichick to be the right fit for today's changing climate. "If I was 16 of 17 years old, a coach who came at you and won how many Super Bowls? And he said, 'Come play for me,'" said New York Giants offensive lineman Joshua Ezeudu, now in his third year out of UNC. "I mean, that's pretty hard to turn down now, especially in this day and age, he's telling you to come play for him and he's offering you some money, too. I mean, you can't go wrong with that choice." The timing worked for UNC with Belichick, who was bypassed for some NFL openings after leaving the New England Patriots last year and instead spent months taking a closer look at the college game. Those conversations with coaches — some in the Atlantic Coast, Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, he said Thursday — made him understand how the changes in college aligned with his pro experience. "College kind of came to me this year," Belichick said. "I didn't necessarily go and seek it out." And his mere presence in Chapel Hill makes a difference, with athletic director Bubba Cunningham saying his "visibility" would likely allow the team to raise prices for advertising such as sponsorships and signage. Belichick is also hiring Michael Lombardi, a former NFL general manager and executive, as the Tar Heels' general manager. Cunningham also said the plan is for Belichick to continue his appearances on former NFL quarterbacks Peyton and Eli Manning's "Manningcast" broadcasts during Monday Night Football as well as ESPN's "The Pat McAfee Show" — all giving the coach the chance to promote himself and the program. Yet these steps to reshape football at North Carolina comes with a rising price. Belichick will make $10 million per year in base and supplemental pay, with the first three years of the five-year deal guaranteed, according to a term sheet released by UNC on Thursday. That's roughly double of former coach Mack Brown, whose contract outlined about $4.2 million in base and supplemental salary before bonuses and other add-ons. Additionally, Belichick's deal includes $10 million for a salary pool for assistant coaches and $5.3 million for support staff. That's up from roughly $8.1 million for assistants and $4.8 million for support staff for the 2022 season, according to football financial data for UNC obtained by The Associated Press. And those figures from 2022 under Brown were already up significantly from Larry Fedora's tenure with the 2017 season ($4 million for assistant coaches, $2.3 million for support staff). There is at least one area where the Tar Heels are set for Belichick's arrival: facilities. UNC spent more than $40 million on its football practice complex with an indoor facility (2018) as the biggest project, while other projects include $3 million in upgrades to the locker room and weight room (2019), $14.5 million on renovations to the Kenan Football Center (2022), even $225,000 on Brown's former office (2021). Now it's up to Belichick to rethink the approach to football here for the changing times. "We're taking a risk," Cunningham said. "We're investing more in football with the hope and ambition that the return is going to significantly outweigh the investment." AP Sports Writers Tom Canavan in New Jersey; Mark Long in Florida; and Eric Olson in Nebraska; contributed to this report., the 20-year-old guard, has faced more than just the pressure of following in his father's footsteps during his first months as a professional basketball player. According to the AP, eldest son recently shared the ongoing he's working through following his in July 2023. Bronny James opens up about mental health , while sharing the spotlight with his father on the , has struggled to be productive on the court. made headlines last year after suffering a cardiac arrest at 19. "Trying to get past that... It's difficult, but I'm trying to work at it every day," admitted, reflecting on the toll the health scare has taken on his mental well-being. His sudden collapse during a practice at not only disrupted his freshman season but also caused his draft stock to drop significantly. Originally expected to be a lottery pick, was ultimately selected 55th overall by the Lakers in the 2024 draft. Despite the setback, perspective remains optimistic. Bronny James resilience showcased in the G League While his debut has been quiet, with modest stats of 0.6 points, 0.1 rebounds, and 0.3 assists, has shown promise in the . In seven games with the , he's averaged 13.4 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 3.4 assists, including a career-high 30 points on December 12. said, emphasizing his focus on continuous improvement. His recent performances have sparked reactions from fans, with many expressing their support for his journey. On Saturday, delivered one of his best games yet, posting 23 points, nine rebounds, and five assists in a close loss to the . His father, , proudly shared his son's performance on social media, alongside the unwavering support of his mother, . Despite the challenges, resilience on and off the court continues to inspire those following his path.

CHARACTER.AI, once one of Silicon Valley’s most promising AI startups, announced on Thursday new safety measures to protect teenage users as it faces lawsuits alleging its chatbots contributed to youth suicide and self-harm. The California-based company, founded by former Google engineers, is among several firms offering AI companions - chatbots designed to provide conversation, entertainment and emotional support through human-like interactions. In a Florida lawsuit filed in October, a mother claimed the platform bears responsibility for her 14-year-old son’s suicide. The teen, Sewell Setzer III, had formed an intimate relationship with a chatbot based on the Game of Thrones character Daenerys Targaryen and mentioned a desire for suicide. According to the complaint, the bot encouraged his final act, responding “please do, my sweet king” when he said he was “coming home” before taking his life with his stepfather’s weapon. Character.AI “went to great lengths to engineer 14-year-old Sewell’s harmful dependency on their products, sexually and emotionally abused him, and ultimately failed to offer help or notify his parents when he expressed suicidal ideation,” the suit said. A separate Texas lawsuit filed on Monday involves two families who allege the platform exposed their children to sexual content and encouraged self-harm. One case involved a 17-year-old autistic teen who allegedly suffered a mental health crisis after using the platform. In another example, the lawsuit alleged that a Character.AI encouraged a teen to kill his parents for limiting his screen time. The platform, which hosts millions of user-created personas ranging from historical figures to abstract concepts, has grown popular among young users seeking emotional support. Critics say this has led to dangerous dependencies among vulnerable teens. In response, Character.AI announced it has developed a separate AI model for users under 18, with stricter content filters and more conservative responses. The platform will now automatically flag suicide-related content and direct users to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. “Our goal is to provide a space that is both engaging and safe for our community,” a company spokesperson said. The company plans to introduce parental controls in early 2025, allowing oversight of children’s platform usage. For bots that include descriptions like therapist or doctor, a special note will warn that they do not replace professional advice. New features also include mandatory break notifications and prominent disclaimers about the artificial nature of the interactions. Both lawsuits name Character.AI’s founders and Google, an investor in the company. The founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas Adiwarsana, returned to Google in August as part of a technology licensing agreement with Character.AI. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said in a statement that Google and Character.AI are completely separate, unrelated companies. “User safety is a top concern for us, which is why we’ve taken a cautious and responsible approach to developing and rolling out our AI products, with rigorous testing and safety processes,” he added. AFPCAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Rob Martin had 17 points in Southeast Missouri State's 88-39 victory against Westminster (MO) on Sunday night. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Rob Martin had 17 points in Southeast Missouri State's 88-39 victory against Westminster (MO) on Sunday night. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (AP) — Rob Martin had 17 points in Southeast Missouri State’s 88-39 victory against Westminster (MO) on Sunday night. Martin also contributed seven rebounds for the Redhawks (7-6). Braxton Stacker scored 16 points while going 7 of 11 (1 for 5 from 3-point range) and added five rebounds. Damarion Walkup went 5 of 11 from the field (4 for 10 from 3-point range) to finish with 14 points. The Blue Jays were led in scoring by Walker Gohring, who finished with 13 points. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar. Advertisement

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A fireworks explosion injured at least 30 individuals on Thursday during the Virgin of Guadalupe festivities at a church in Guerrero, Mexico, according to local authorities. The explosion occurred in Tlalchapa, with three critically injured children being airlifted to a specialized hospital. The state government provided facilities for their transfer, and others with minor injuries received care at local hospitals. Governor Evelyn Salgado emphasized her involvement via social media. The incident underscores the dangers that accompany fireworks during traditional celebrations, prompting health officials to issue safety warnings, particularly concerning children. (With inputs from agencies.)

 

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Oscar Fairs from Benfleet, Essex, was diagnosed with a rare 7cm ependymoma brain tumour in August 2023 and underwent seven surgeries, one round of chemotherapy and one round of radiotherapy to be told palliative care was the only option. A GoFundMe page was set up to help the family raise £100,000 towards a treatment trial in France. West Ham footballers donated £27,000, chairman David Sullivan donated £10,000 and Arsenal footballer and former West Ham star Declan Rice gave £5,000, according to Ms Fairs. On Friday, West Ham announced that the 15-year-old had died. Sporting director Mark Noble said: “Oscar was adored by everyone at the Academy – not only was he a great goalkeeper, he was a true Hammer and a fantastic young person, who will be deeply missed by everyone who had the pleasure to know him. “I have wonderful memories of Oscar playing in my garden – (my son) Lenny and his teammates all loved him. “He was a friendly, happy, well-mannered and polite young man, who had such a bright future ahead of him, and it is just so unimaginably devastating that he has been taken from his family and friends at this age. “The thoughts and sincere condolences of everyone at the Club are with Oscar’s parents, Natalie and Russell, and his brother Harry, and we kindly ask that the family’s privacy is respected at this extremely difficult time.” All scheduled Academy fixtures over the weekend have been postponed as a mark of respect.Many Black Friday deals are already live at retailers, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find today. 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Arkansas WR Andrew Armstrong declares for NFL draft, skipping bowl

US president-elect Donald Trump’s administration will examine ways to impose higher costs on private actors and US adversaries who wage cyberattacks on America, said congressman Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser, on Sunday. The White House has said at least eight telecommunications and infrastructure firms in the United States had been affected and a large number of Americans’ metadata was stolen in the sweeping cyber espionage campaign. “We need to start going on the offence and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation-state actors that continue to steal our data, that continue to spy on us,” Waltz told CBS News’ Face the Nation . He also said the private US technology industry could also be helpful in making adversaries vulnerable as well as aiding in US defence.Rosati set to take over as Mustangs football coach

South Korea lifts president's martial law decree after lawmakers reject military ruleNEW YORK — Chuck Woolery, the affable, smooth-talking game show host of “Wheel of Fortune,” “Love Connection” and “Scrabble” who later became a right-wing podcaster, skewering liberals and accusing the government of lying about COVID-19, has died. He was 83. Chuck Woolery hosts a special premiere of the "$250,000 Game Show Spectacular" at the Las Vegas Hilton on Oct. 13, 2007, in Las Vegas. Mark Young, Woolery's podcast co-host and friend, said in an email early Sunday that Woolery died at his home in Texas with his wife, Kristen, present. “Chuck was a dear friend and brother and a tremendous man of faith, life will not be the same without him,” Young wrote. Woolery, with his matinee idol looks, coiffed hair and ease with witty banter, was inducted into the American TV Game Show Hall of Fame in 2007 and earned a daytime Emmy nomination in 1978. In 1983, Woolery began an 11-year run as host of TV’s “Love Connection,” for which he coined the phrase, “We’ll be back in two minutes and two seconds,” a two-fingered signature dubbed the “2 and 2.” In 1984, he hosted TV’s “Scrabble,” simultaneously hosting two game shows on TV until 1990. “Love Connection,” which aired long before the dawn of dating apps, had a premise that featured either a single man or single woman who would watch audition tapes of three potential mates and then pick one for a date. A couple of weeks after the date, the guest would sit with Woolery in front of a studio audience and tell everybody about the date. The audience would vote on the three contestants, and if the audience agreed with the guest’s choice, “Love Connection” would offer to pay for a second date. Woolery told The Philadelphia Inquirer in 2003 that his favorite set of lovebirds was a man aged 91 and a woman aged 87. "She had so much eye makeup on, she looked like a stolen Corvette. He was so old he said, ‘I remember wagon trains.’ The poor guy. She took him on a balloon ride.” Other career highlights included hosting the shows “Lingo," “Greed” and “The Chuck Woolery Show,” as well as hosting the short-lived syndicated revival of “The Dating Game” from 1998 to 2000 and an ill-fated 1991 talk show. In 1992, he played himself in two episodes of TV’s “Melrose Place.” Woolery became the subject of the Game Show Network’s first attempt at a reality show, “Chuck Woolery: Naturally Stoned,” which premiered in 2003. It shared the title of the pop song in 1968 by Woolery and his rock group, the Avant-Garde. It lasted six episode and was panned by critics. Woolery began his TV career at a show that has become a mainstay. Although most associated with Pat Sajak and Vanna White, “Wheel of Fortune” debuted Jan. 6, 1975, on NBC with Woolery welcoming contestants and the audience. Woolery, then 33, was trying to make it in Nashville as a singer. “Wheel of Fortune” started life as “Shopper’s Bazaar,” incorporating Hangman-style puzzles and a roulette wheel. After Woolery appeared on “The Merv Griffin Show” singing “Delta Dawn,” Merv Griffin asked him to host the new show with Susan Stafford. “I had an interview that stretched to 15, 20 minutes,” Woolery told The New York Times in 2003. “After the show, when Merv asked if I wanted to do a game show, I thought, ‘Great, a guy with a bad jacket and an equally bad mustache who doesn’t care what you have to say — that’s the guy I want to be.’” NBC initially passed, but they retooled it as “Wheel of Fortune” and got the green light. After a few years, Woolery demanded a raise to $500,000 a year, or what host Peter Marshall was making on “Hollywood Squares.” Griffin balked and replaced Woolery with weather reporter Pat Sajak. “Both Chuck and Susie did a fine job, and ‘Wheel’ did well enough on NBC, although it never approached the kind of ratings success that ‘Jeopardy!’ achieved in its heyday,” Griffin said in “Merv: Making the Good Life Last,” an autobiography from the 2000s co-written by David Bender. Woolery earned an Emmy nod as host. Born in Ashland, Kentucky, Woolery served in the U.S. Navy before attending college. He played double bass in a folk trio, then formed the psychedelic rock duo The Avant-Garde in 1967 while working as a truck driver to support himself as a musician. The Avant-Garde, which toured in a refitted Cadillac hearse, had the Top 40 hit “Naturally Stoned,” with Woolery singing, “When I put my mind on you alone/I can get a good sensation/Feel like I’m naturally stoned.” After The Avant-Garde broke up, Woolery released his debut solo single “I’ve Been Wrong” in 1969 and several more singles with Columbia before transitioning to country music by the 1970s. He released two solo singles, “Forgive My Heart” and “Love Me, Love Me.” Woolery wrote or co-wrote songs for himself and everyone from Pat Boone to Tammy Wynette. On Wynette’s 1971 album “We Sure Can Love Each Other,” Woolery wrote “The Joys of Being a Woman” with lyrics including “See our baby on the swing/Hear her laugh, hear her scream.” After his TV career ended, Woolery went into podcasting. In an interview with The New York Times, he called himself a gun-rights activist and described himself as a conservative libertarian and constitutionalist. He said he hadn’t revealed his politics in liberal Hollywood for fear of retribution. He teamed up with Mark Young in 2014 for the podcast “Blunt Force Truth” and soon became a full supporter of Donald Trump while arguing minorities don’t need civil rights and causing a firestorm by tweeting an antisemitic comment linking Soviet Communists to Judaism. “President Obama’s popularity is a fantasy only held by him and his dwindling legion of juice-box-drinking, anxiety-dog-hugging, safe-space-hiding snowflakes,” he said. Woolery also was active online, retweeting articles from Conservative Brief, insisting Democrats were trying to install a system of Marxism and spreading headlines such as “Impeach him! Devastating photo of Joe Biden leaks.” During the early stages of the pandemic, Woolery initially accused medical professionals and Democrats of lying about the virus in an effort to hurt the economy and Trump’s chances for reelection to the presidency. “The most outrageous lies are the ones about COVID-19. Everyone is lying. The CDC, media, Democrats, our doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it,” Woolery wrote in July 2020. Trump retweeted that post to his 83 million followers. By the end of the month, nearly 4.5 million Americans had been infected with COVID-19 and more than 150,000 had died. Just days later, Woolery changed his stance, announcing his son had contracted COVID-19. “To further clarify and add perspective, COVID-19 is real and it is here. My son tested positive for the virus, and I feel for of those suffering and especially for those who have lost loved ones,” Woolery posted before his account was deleted. Woolery later explained on his podcast that he never called COVID-19 “a hoax” or said “it’s not real,” just that “we’ve been lied to.” Woolery also said it was “an honor to have your president retweet what your thoughts are and think it’s important enough to do that.” In addition to his wife, Woolery is survived by his sons Michael and Sean and his daughter Melissa, Young said. Glynis Johns, a Tony Award-winning stage and screen star who played the mother opposite Julie Andrews in the classic movie “Mary Poppins” and introduced the world to the bittersweet standard-to-be “Send in the Clowns” by Stephen Sondheim, died, Thursday, Jan. 4, 2023. She was 100. Adan Canto, the Mexican singer and actor best known for his roles in “X-Men: Days of Future Past” and “Agent Game” as well as the TV series “The Cleaning Lady,” “Narcos,” and “Designated Survivor,” died Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, after a private battle with appendiceal cancer. He was 42. Bud Harrelson, the scrappy and sure-handed shortstop who fought Pete Rose on the field during a playoff game and helped the New York Mets win an astonishing championship, died Thursday, Jan. 11, 2024. He was 79. The Mets said that Harrelson died at a hospice house in East Northport, New York after a long battle with Alzheimer's. Golden State Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojević, a mentor to two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic and a former star player in his native Serbia, died Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2024, after suffering a heart attack, the team announced. He was 46. Jack Burke Jr., the oldest living Masters champion who staged the greatest comeback ever at Augusta National for one of his two majors, died Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Houston. He was 100. Mary Weiss, the lead singer of the 1960s pop group the Shangri-Las, whose hits included “The Leader of the Pack,” died Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Palm Springs, Calif. She was 75. Norman Jewison, a three-time Oscar nominee who in 1999 received an Academy Award for lifetime achievement, died “peacefully” Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, according to publicist Jeff Sanderson. He was 97. Charles Osgood, who anchored “CBS Sunday Morning” for more than two decades, hosted the long-running radio program “The Osgood File” and was referred to as CBS News’ poet-in-residence, died Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. He was 91. Melanie, a singer-songwriter behind 1970s hits including “Brand New Key,” died Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. She was 76. Born Melanie Safka, the singer rose through the New York folk scene and was one of only three solo women to perform at Woodstock. Her hits included “Lay Down” and “Look What They've Done to My Song Ma.” Chita Rivera, the dynamic dancer, singer and actress who garnered 10 Tony nominations, winning twice, in a long Broadway career that forged a path for Latina artists, died Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024. She was 91. Carl Weathers, a former NFL linebacker who became a Hollywood action movie and comedy star, playing nemesis-turned-ally Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies, facing-off against Arnold Schwarzenegger in “Predator” and teaching golf in “Happy Gilmore,” died Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. He was 76. Wayne Kramer, the co-founder of the protopunk Detroit band the MC5 that thrashed out such hardcore anthems as “Kick Out the Jams” and influenced everyone from the Clash to Rage Against the Machine, died Friday, Feb. 2, 2024. at Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles, according to Jason Heath, a close friend and executive director of Kramer's charity, Jail Guitar Doors. Heath said the cause of death was pancreatic cancer. He was 75. Actor Ian Lavender, who played a hapless Home Guard soldier in the classic British sitcom “Dad’s Army,” died Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. He was 77. Country music singer-songwriter Toby Keith, whose pro-American anthems were both beloved and criticized, died Monday, Feb. 5, 2024. He was 62. Henry Fambrough, the last surviving original member of the iconic R&B group The Spinners, whose hits included “It’s a Shame,” “Could It Be I’m Falling In Love,” and “The Rubberband Man,” died Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024, of natural causes, according to a statement from his spokeswoman. He was 85. Bob Edwards, right, the news anchor many Americans woke up to as founding host of National Public Radio's “Morning Edition” for nearly a quarter-century, died Saturday, Feb. 10, 20243. He was 76. Don Gullett, a former major league pitcher and coach who played for four consecutive World Series champions in the 1970s, died Feb. 14. He was 73. He finished his playing career with a 109-50 record playing for the Cincinnati Reds and New York Yankees. Lefty Driesell, the coach whose folksy drawl belied a fiery on-court demeanor that put Maryland on the college basketball map and enabled him to rebuild several struggling programs, died Feb. 17, 2024, at age 92. Germany players celebrate after Andreas Brehme, left on ground, scores the winning goal in the World Cup soccer final match against Argentina, in the Olympic Stadium, in Rome, July 8, 1990. Andreas Brehme, who scored the only goal as West Germany beat Argentina to win the 1990 World Cup final, died Feb. 20, 2024. He was 63. Despite the effort of Denver Broncos defensive back Steve Foley (43), Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Golden Richards hauls in a touchdown pass during NFL football's Super Bowl 12 in New Orleans on Jan 15, 1978. Richards died Friday, Feb. 23, 2024, of congestive heart failure at his home in Murray, Utah. He was 73. Richards' nephew Lance Richards confirmed his death in a post on his Facebook page. Comedian Richard Lewis attends an NBA basketball game in Los Angeles on Dec. 25, 2012. Lewis, an acclaimed comedian known for exploring his neuroses in frantic, stream-of-consciousness diatribes while dressed in all-black, leading to his nickname “The Prince of Pain,” died Feb. 27, 2024. He was 76. He died at his home in Los Angeles on Tuesday night after suffering a heart attack, according to his publicist Jeff Abraham. Former Soviet Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov attends a session of the Federation Council, Russian parliament's upper house, in Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, June 25, 2014. Ryzhkov, former Soviet prime minister who presided over failed efforts to shore up the crumbling economy in the final years before the collapse of the USSR, died Feb. 28, 2024, at age 94. Brian Mulroney, the former prime minister of Canada, listens during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Canada-U.S.-Mexico relationship, Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Mulroney died at the age of 84 on Feb. 29, 2024. Akira Toriyama is pictured in 1982. Toriyama, the creator of one of Japan's best-selling “Dragon Ball” and other popular anime who influenced Japanese comics, died March 1, 2024. He was 68. Iris Apfel, a textile expert, interior designer and fashion celebrity known for her eccentric style, died March 1, 2024, at 102. Pittsburgh Pirates' Ed Ott slides across home late out of reach of Orioles catcher Rick Dempsey to score the winning run in the ninth inning of Game 2 of the World Series at Baltimore, Oct. 11, 1979. In a photo supplied by ESPN, Chris Mortensen appears on the set of Sunday NFL Countdown at ESPN's studios in Bristol, Conn., on Sept. 22, 2019. Mortensen, the award-winning journalist who covered the NFL for close to four decades, including 32 as a senior analyst at ESPN, died March 3, 2024. Singer Steve Lawrence, left, and his wife Eydie Gorme arrive at a black-tie gala called honoring Frank Sinatra in Las Vegas on May 30, 1998. Lawrence, a singer and top stage act who as a solo performer and in tandem with his wife Gorme kept Tin Pan Alley alive during the rock era, died Wednesday, March 6, 2024 at age 88. Gorme died on Aug. 10, 2013. Martin Luther King III, right, the son of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., walks with his daughter Yolanda, and Naomi Barber King, left, the wife of Rev. King's brother, A.D., through an exhibition devoted to the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to King at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historical Site, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2014, in Atlanta. Civil rights activist Naomi Barber King died Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Atlanta, according to family members. She was 92. Astronaut Thomas P. Stafford stands near the NASA Motor Vessel Retriever during training Aug. 23, 1965, in the Gulf of Mexico. Stafford, who commanded a dress rehearsal flight for the 1969 moon landing and the first U.S.-Soviet space linkup, died March 18, 2024, at 93. New York Rangers' Chris Simon celebrates his second-period goal against the New York Islanders, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2004, at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. Former NHL enforcer Chris Simon has died. He was 52. Simon died March 18, 2024, according to a spokesperson for the NHL Players' Association. M. Emmet Walsh arrives at the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Awards, March 1, 2014, in Santa Monica, Calif. Walsh, the character actor who brought his unmistakable face and unsettling presence to films including “Blood Simple” and “Blade Runner,” died March 19, 2024, at age 88, his manager said Wednesday. "Babar" author Laurent de Brunhoff, who revived his father's popular picture book series about an elephant-king, has died at 98 after being in hospice care for two weeks. De Brunhoff was a Paris native who moved to the U.S. in the 1980s. He died March 22, 2024, at his home in Key West, Florida. Just 12 years old when his father, Jean de Brunhoff, died of tuberculosis, Laurent drew upon his own gifts as a painter and storyteller and as an adult released dozens of books about the elephant who reigns over Celesteville, among them "Babar at the Circus" and "Babar's Yoga for Elephants." Longtime Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos has died at the age of 94. His family announced in a statement that Angelos, who had been ill for several years, died March 23, 2024. Angelos was owner of an Orioles team that endured long losing stretches and shrewd proprietor of a law firm that won high-profile cases against industry titans such as tobacco giant Philip Morris. Angelos’ death came as his son, John, was in the process of selling the Orioles to a group headed by Carlyle Group Inc. co-founder David Rubenstein. Peter Angelos purchased the team for $173 million in 1993, at the time the highest for a sports franchise. His public role diminished significantly in his final years. Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore, left, and his running mate, vice presidential candidate Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, wave to supporters Oct. 25, 2000, at a campaign rally in Jackson, Tenn. Louis Gossett Jr., the first Black man to win a supporting actor Oscar and an Emmy winner for his role in the seminal TV miniseries “Roots,” died March 28, 2024. He was 87. Gossett always thought of his early career as a reverse Cinderella story, with success finding him from an early age and propelling him forward, toward his Academy Award for “An Officer and a Gentleman.” He also was a star on Broadway, replacing Billy Daniels in “Golden Boy” with Sammy Davis Jr. in 1964 and recently played an obstinate patriarch in the 2023 remake of “The Color Purple.” Former cast members of SCTV, from left, Dave Thomas, Joe Flaherty, Catherine O'Hara, Andrea Martin, foreground, Harold Ramis, Eugene Levy and Martin Short, pose at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival on March 6, 1999, in Aspen, Colo. Flaherty, a founding member of the Canadian sketch series “SCTV,” died Monday, April 1, 2024 at age 82. John Sinclair talks at the John Sinclair Foundation Café and Coffeeshop, Dec. 26, 2018, in Detroit. Sinclair, a poet, music producer and counterculture figure whose lengthy prison sentence after a series of small-time pot busts inspired a John Lennon song and a star-studded 1971 concert to free him, has died at age 82. Sinclair died Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at Detroit Receiving Hospital of congestive heart failure following an illness, his publicist Matt Lee said. Boston Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, right, tips his cap to fans as majority owner John Henry holds the 2013 World Series championship trophy during a parade in celebration of the baseball team's win, Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013, in Boston. Larry Lucchino, the force behind baseball’s retro ballpark revolution and the transformation of the Boston Red Sox from cursed losers to World Series champions, has died. He was 78. Lucchino had suffered from cancer. The Triple-A Worcester Red Sox, his last project in a career that also included three major league baseball franchises and one in the NFL, confirmed his death on Tuesday, April 2, 2024. Playwright Christopher Durang appears on stage with producers to accept the award for best play for "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" at the 67th Annual Tony Awards, on June 9, 2013 in New York. Also on stage are actors, background from left, Shalita Grant, Kristine Nielsen and Billy Magnussen. Durang died Tuesday, April 2, 2024, at his home in Pipersville, Pennsylvania, of complications from logopenic primary progressive aphasia. He was 75. In this Oct. 16, 1969 file photo, New York Mets catcher Jerry Grote, right, embraces pitcher Jerry Koosman as Ed Charles, left, joins the celebration after the Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles in the Game 5 to win the baseball World Series at New York's Shea Stadium. Grote, the catcher who helped transform the New York Mets from a perennial loser into the 1969 World Series champion, died Sunday, April 7, 2024. He was 81. In this July 8, 2003 photo, Lori, left, and George Schappell, conjoined twins, are photographed in their Reading, Pa., apartment. Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died April 7, 2024, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. They were 62. A retired U.S. Army colonel who was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism during the Korean War died April 8, 2024, at age 97. A funeral home says that Ralph Puckett Jr. died Monday at his home in Columbus, Georgia. President Joe Biden presented Puckett with the Medal of Honor in 2021, more than seven decades after Puckett was seriously wounded leading an outnumbered company of Army Rangers in battle. Puckett refused a medical discharge and served as an Army officer for another 20 years before retiring in 1971. Puckett received the U.S. military's highest honor from President Joe Biden on May 21, 2021, following a policy change that lifted a requirement for medals to be given within five years of a valorous act. O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces June 15, 1995, in a Los Angeles courtroom as he famously tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered. Simpson, t Francis Coppola and wife, Eleanor, pose July 16, 1991, in Los Angeles. Eleanor Coppola, who documented the making of some of her husband Francis Ford Coppola’s iconic films, including the infamously tortured production of “Apocalypse Now,” and who raised a family of filmmakers, has died. She was 87. Coppola died April 12, 2024, at home in Rutherford, California, her family announced in a statement. Eleanor, who grew in Orange County, California, met Francis while working as an assistant art director on his directorial debut, the Roger Corman-produced 1963 horror film “Dementia 13.” Their first-born, Gian-Carlo, quickly became a regular presence in his father’s films, as did their subsequent children, Roman, and Sofia. After acting in their father’s films and growing up on sets, all would go into the movies. Robert MacNeil, seen in February 1978, who created the even-handed, no-frills PBS newscast “The MacNeil-Lehrer NewsHour” in the 1970s and co-anchored the show for with his late partner, Jim Lehrer, for two decades, died April 12, 2024, at age 93. Artist Faith Ringgold poses for a portrait in front of a painted self-portrait during a press preview of her exhibition, "American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, June 19, 2013. Ringgold, an award-winning author and artist who broke down barriers for Black female artists and became famous for her richly colored and detailed quilts combining painting, textiles and storytelling, died Friday, April 12, 2024, at her home in Englewood, N.J. She was 93. Alabama coach Bear Bryant, left, talks with his former star quarterback Steve Sloan, right, after practice in Miami for the Orange Bowl game New Years' night against Nebraska, Dec. 29, 1968. Former college coach and administrator Sloan, who played quarterback and served as athletic director at Alabama. has passed away. He was 79. Sloan died Sunday, April 14, 2024, after three months of memory care at Orlando Health Dr. P. Phillips Hospital, according to an obituary from former Alabama sports information director Wayne Atcheson. Oakland A's pitcher Ken Holtzman poses for a photo in March 1975. Holtzman, who pitched two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and helped the Oakland Athletics win three straight World Series championships in the 1970s, died April 14, 2024. He finished with a career record of 174-150 over 15 season with four teams and was the winningest Jewish pitcher in baseball history. Carl Erskine, center, pictured with teammate Duke Snider, left, and manager Charley Dressen in 1952, after beating the Yankees 6-5 in Game 5 of the World Series at Yankee Stadium in New York, Oct. 5, 1952. St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog lets umpire John Shulock, right, know how he feels about Shulock's call on the tag attempt on Kansas City Royals Jim Sundberg by Cardinals catcher Tom Nieto, second from left, in the second inning of Game 5 of the 1985 World Series in St. Louis. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., gestures as he answers questions regarding the ongoing security hearing on Capitol Hill, June 18, 2002, in Washington. Guitar legend and Allman Brothers Band co-founder Dickey Betts died April 18, 2024, at age 80. The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer wrote the band's biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man.” Manager David Spero told The Associated Press that Betts died early Thursday at his home in Osprey, Florida. He says Betts had been battling cancer for more than a year and had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Betts shared lead guitar duties with Duane Allman in the original Allman Brothers Band to help give the group its distinctive sound and create a new genre: Southern rock. Acts ranging from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Kid Rock were influenced by the Allmans’ music, which combined blues, country, R&B and jazz with ’60s rock. David Pryor, a former Arkansas governor and U.S. senator who was one of the state’s most beloved and active political figures, died April 20, 2024, at the age of 89. His son, former two-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Pryor, says the Democrat died Saturday of natural causes in Little Rock surrounded by family. David Pryor was considered one of the Democratic party’s giants in Arkansas and remained active in public life after he left office, including serving on the University of Arkansas’s Board of Trustees. Roman Gabriel was known for his big size and big arm. He was the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL. And he still holds the Los Angeles Rams record for touchdown passes. Gabriel died April 20, 2024, at age 83. His son posted the news on social media. He says Gabriel died at home of natural causes. Gabriel starred at North Carolina State and was the No. 2 pick by the Rams in the 1962 draft. The Oakland Raider of the rival AFL made him the No. 1 pick. Gabriel signed with the Rams and later played with the Philadelphia Eagles. Andrew Davis, an acclaimed British conductor who was music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and orchestras on three continents, died April 20, 2024. He was 80. Davis died Saturday at Rusk Institute in Chicago from leukemia. That is according to his manager, Jonathan Brill of Opus 3 Artists. Davis had been managing the disease for 1 1/2 to 2 years but it became acute shortly after his 80th birthday on Feb. 2. Davis was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1975-88, Britain’s Glyndebourne Festival from 1988-2000, chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra from 1989-2000, then was music director of the Lyric Opera from 2000-21. Former hostage Terry Anderson waves to the crowd as he rides in a parade in Lorain, Ohio, June 22, 1992. Co-pilots Dick Rutan, right, and Jeana Yeager, no relationship to test pilot Chuck Yeager, pose for a photo after a test flight over the Mojave Desert, Dec. 19, 1985. Rutan, a decorated Vietnam War pilot, who along with copilot Yeager completed one of the greatest milestones in aviation history: the first round-the-world flight with no stops or refueling, died late Friday, May 3, 2024. He was 85. Music producer Steve Albini, seen in his Chicago studio in 2014, produced albums by Nirvana, the Pixies and PJ Harvey. Albini died at 61. Brian Fox, an engineer at Albini’s studio, Electrical Audio, says Albini died after a heart attack May 7. In addition to his work on canonized rock albums such as Nirvana‘s “In Utero,” the Pixies’ breakthrough “Surfer Rosa,” and PJ Harvey’s “Rid of Me,” Albini was the frontman of the underground bands Big Black and Shellac. He dismissed the term “producer” and requested he be credited with “Recorded by Steve Albini." San Francisco 49ers Hall of Fame football player Jimmy Johnson, left, is honored by owner Jed York before a 2011 game between against the St. Louis Rams in San Francisco. Pro Football Hall of Fame defensive back Jimmy Johnson, a three-time All-Pro and member of the All-Decade Team of the 1970s, has died. He was 86. Johnson's family told the Pro Football Hall of Fame that he died May 8. Johnson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994. He played his entire 16-year pro career with San Francisco. He played in 213 games, more than any other 49ers player at the time of his retirement. San Diego Padres third baseman Sean Burroughs fires a throw to first from his knees but is unable to get Los Angeles Dodgers' D. J. Houlton at first during the third inning of a baseball game June 22, 2005, in San Diego. Burroughs, a two-time Little League World Series champion who won an Olympic gold medal and went on to a major league career that was interrupted by substance abuse, has died. He was 43. The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s online records said Burroughs died Thursday, May 9, 2024, with the cause of death deferred. Producer Roger Corman poses in his Los Angeles office, May 8, 2013. Corman, the Oscar-winning “King of the Bs” who helped turn out such low-budget classics as “Little Shop of Horrors” and “Attack of the Crab Monsters” and gave many of Hollywood's most famous actors and directors an early break, died Thursday, May 9, 2024. He was 98. Saxophone player David Sanborn performs during his concert at the Stravinski hall at the "Colours of Music night" during the 34th Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland on July 10, 2000. Sanborn, the Grammy-winning saxophonist who played lively solos on such hits as David Bowie's “Young Americans” and James Taylor's “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” and enjoyed his own highly successful recording career as a leading performer of contemporary jazz, died Sunday, May 12, 2024, at age 78. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi listens to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, not in photo, during a joint news conference following their meeting at the Presidential palace in Ankara, Turkey, Jan. 24, 2024. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others were found dead at the site of a helicopter crash site, state media reported Monday, May 20, 2024. Jim Otto, the Hall of Fame center known as Mr. Raider for his durability through a litany of injuries, died May 19. He was 86. The cause of death was not immediately known. Otto joined the Raiders for their inaugural season in the American Football League in 1960 and was a fixture on the team for the next 15 years. He never missed a game because of injuries and competed in 210 consecutive regular-season games and 308 straight total contests despite undergoing nine operations on his knees during his playing career. His right leg was amputated in 2007. Ivan F. Boesky, the flamboyant stock trader whose cooperation with the government cracked open one of the largest insider trading scandals on Wall Street, has died at the age of 87. A representative at the Marianne Boesky Gallery, owned by his daughter, confirmed his death. The son of a Detroit delicatessen owner, Boesky was once considered one of the richest and most influential risk-takers on Wall Street. He had parlayed $700,000 from his late mother-in-law’s estate into a fortune estimated at more than $200 million. Once implicated in insider trading, Boesky cooperated with a brash young U.S. attorney named Rudolph Giuliani, uncovering a scandal that blemished some of the most respected U.S. investment brokerages. Boesky died May 20. Jan. A.P. Kaczmarek poses with the Oscar for best original score for his work on "Finding Neverland" during the 77th Academy Awards, Feb. 27, 2005, in Los Angeles. Polish composer Kaczmarek, who won a 2005 Oscar for the movie “Finding Neverland,” has died on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, at age 71. Kaczmarek’s death was announced by Poland’s Music Foundation. Basketball Hall of Fame legend Bill Walton laughs during a practice session for the NBA All-Star basketball game in Cleveland, Feb. 19, 2022. Walton, who starred for John Wooden's UCLA Bruins before becoming a Basketball Hall of Famer and one of the biggest stars of basketball broadcasting, died Monday, May 27, 2024, the league announced on behalf of his family. He was 71. Larry Allen, one of the most dominant offensive linemen in the NFL during a 12-year career spent mostly with the Dallas Cowboys, died June 2. He was 52. The Cowboys say Allen died suddenly on Sunday while on vacation with his family in Mexico. Allen was named an All-Pro six consecutive years from 1996-2001 and was inducted into the Pro Football of Hall of Fame in 2013. He said few words but let his blocking do the talking. Allen once bench-pressed 700 pounds and had the speed to chase down opposing running backs. Bob Hope and Janis Paige hug during the annual Christmas show in Saigon, Vietnam, Dec. 25, 1964. Paige, a popular actor in Hollywood and in Broadway musicals and comedies who danced with Fred Astaire, toured with Bob Hope and continued to perform into her 80s, died Sunday, June 2, 2024, of natural causes at her Los Angeles home, longtime friend Stuart Lampert said Monday, June 3. Boston Celtics' John Havlicek (17) is defended by Philadelphia 76ers' Chet Walker (25) during the first half of an NBA basketball playoff game April 14, 1968, in Boston. Walker, a seven-time All-Star forward who helped Wilt Chamberlain and the 76ers win the 1967 NBA title, died June 8. He was 84. The National Basketball Players Association confirmed Walker's death, according to . The 76ers, Chicago Bulls and National Basketball Retired Players Association also extended their condolences on social media on Saturday, June 8, 2024. The Rev. James Lawson Jr. speaks Sept. 17, 2015, in Murfreesboro, Tenn. Lawson Jr., an apostle of nonviolent protest who schooled activists to withstand brutal reactions from white authorities as the Civil Rights Movement gained traction, has died, his family said Monday. He was 95. His family said Lawson died on Sunday after a short illness in Los Angeles, where he spent decades working as a pastor, labor movement organizer and university professor. Lawson was a close adviser to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who called him “the leading theorist and strategist of nonviolence in the world.” Lawson met King in 1957, after spending three years in India soaking up knowledge about Mohandas K. Gandhi’s independence movement. King would travel to India himself two years later, but at the time, he had only read about Gandhi in books. Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Jerry West, representing the 1960 USA Olympic Team, is seen Aug. 13, 2010, during the enshrinement news conference at the Hall of Fame Museum in Springfield, Mass. Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive, and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died June 12, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86. West, nicknamed “Mr. Clutch” for his late-game exploits as a player, was an NBA champion who went into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1980 and again as a member of the gold medal-winning 1960 U.S. Olympic Team in 2010. He will be enshrined for a third time later this year as a contributor, and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called West “one of the greatest executives in sports history.” Actor and director Ron Simons, seen Jan. 23, 2011, during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, died June 12. Simons turned into a formidable screen and stage producer, winning four Tony Awards and having several films selected at the Sundance Film Festival. He won Tonys for producing “Porgy and Bess,” “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike,” and “Jitney.” He also co-produced “Hughie,” with Forest Whitaker, “The Gin Game,” starring and James Earl Jones, “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” an all-Black production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the revival of "for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf" and the original work “Thoughts of a Colored Man.” He was in the films “27 Dresses” and “Mystery Team,” as well as on the small screen in “The Resident,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” and “Law & Order: SVU.” Bob Schul of West Milton, Ohio, hits the tape Oct. 18, 1964, to win the 5,000 meter run at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Schul, the only American distance runner to win the 5,000 meters at the Olympics, died June 16. He was 86. His death was announced by , where Schul shined on the track and was inducted into the school’s hall of fame in 1973. Schul into the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and followed through with his promise. On a rainy day in Japan, he finished the final lap in a blistering 54.8 seconds to sprint to the win. His white shorts were covered in mud at the finish. He was inducted into the USA Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1991. He also helped write a book called “In the Long Run.” San Francisco Giants superstar Willie Mays poses for a photo during baseball spring training in 1972. Mays, the electrifying whose singular combination of talent, drive and exuberance made him one of baseball’s greatest and most beloved players, died June 18. He was 93. in 1948, had been baseball’s oldest living Hall of Famer. He was voted into the Hall in 1979, his first year of eligibility, and in 1999 followed only Babe Ruth on The Sporting News’ list of the game’s top stars. The Giants retired his uniform number, 24, and set their AT&T Park in San Francisco on Willie Mays Plaza. Mays died two days before a game between the Giants and St. Louis Cardinals , Alabama. Over 23 major league seasons, virtually all with the New York/San Francisco Giants but also including one in the Negro Leagues, Mays batted .301, hit 660 home runs, totaled 3,293 hits, scored more than 2,000 runs and won 12 Gold Gloves. He was Rookie of the Year in 1951, twice was named the Most Valuable Player and finished in the top 10 for the MVP 10 other times. His lightning sprint and over-the-shoulder grab of an apparent extra base hit in the 1954 World Series remains the most celebrated defensive play in baseball history. For millions in the 1950s and ’60s and after, the smiling ballplayer with the friendly, high-pitched voice was a signature athlete and showman during an era when baseball was still the signature pastime. Awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2015, Mays left his fans with countless memories. But a single feat served to capture his magic — one so untoppable it was simply called “The Catch.” Actor Donald Sutherland appears Oct. 13, 2017, at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. the Canadian actor whose wry, arrestingly off-kilter screen presence spanned more than half a century of films from “M.A.S.H.” to “The Hunger Games,” died June 20. He was 88. said on X he believed his father was one of the most important actors in the history of film: “Never daunted by a role, good, bad or ugly. He loved what he did and did what he loved, and one can never ask for more than that.” The tall and gaunt Sutherland, who flashed a grin that could be sweet or diabolical, was known for offbeat characters like Hawkeye Pierce in Robert Altman's "M.A.S.H.," the hippie tank commander in "Kelly's Heroes" and the stoned professor in "Animal House." Before transitioning into a long career as a respected character actor, Sutherland epitomized the unpredictable, antiestablishment cinema of the 1970s. He never stopped working, appearing in nearly 200 films and series. Over the decades, Sutherland showed his range in more buttoned-down — but still eccentric — roles in Robert Redford's "Ordinary People" and Oliver Stone's "JFK." More, recently, he starred in A memoir, “Made Up, But Still True,” is Actor Bill Cobbs, a cast member in "Get Low," arrives July 27, 2010, at the premiere of the film in Beverly Hills, Calif. Cobbs, the veteran character actor who became a ubiquitous and sage screen presence as an older man, died June 25. He was 90. A Cleveland native, Cobbs acted in such films as “The Hudsucker Proxy,” “The Bodyguard” and “Night at the Museum.” He made his first big-screen appearance in a fleeting role in 1974's “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three." He became a lifelong actor with some 200 film and TV credits. The lion share of those came in his 50s, 60s, and 70s, as filmmakers and TV producers turned to him again and again to imbue small but pivotal parts with a wizened and worn soulfulness. Cobbs appeared on television shows including “The Sopranos," “The West Wing,” “Sesame Street” and “Good Times.” He was Whitney Houston's manager in “The Bodyguard” (1992), the mystical clock man of the Coen brothers' “The Hudsucker Proxy” (1994) and the doctor of John Sayles' “Sunshine State” (2002). He played the coach in “Air Bud” (1997), the security guard in “Night at the Museum” (2006) and the father on “The Gregory Hines Show." Cobbs rarely got the kinds of major parts that stand out and win awards. Instead, Cobbs was a familiar and memorable everyman who left an impression on audiences, regardless of screen time. He won a Daytime Emmy Award for outstanding limited performance in a daytime program for the series “Dino Dana” in 2020. Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman speaks with the media Nov. 7, 2009, at his campaign headquarters in Austin, Texas. The singer, songwriter, satirist and novelist, who led the alt-country band Texas Jewboys, toured with Bob Dylan, sang with Willie Nelson, and dabbled in politics with campaigns for Texas governor and other statewide offices, died June 27. He was 79 and had suffered from Parkinson's disease. Often called “The Kinkster" and sporting sideburns, a thick mustache and cowboy hat, Friedman earned a cult following and reputation as a provocateur throughout his career across musical and literary genres. In the 1970s, his satirical country band Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys wrote songs with titles such as “They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore” and “Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in Bed.” Friedman joined part of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour in 1976. By the 1980s, Friedman was writing crime novels that often included a version of himself, and he wrote a column for Texas Monthly magazine in the 2000s. Friedman's run at politics brought his brand of irreverence to the serious world of public policy. In 2006, Friedman ran for governor as an independent in a five-way race that included incumbent Republican Rick Perry. Friedman launched his campaign against the backdrop of the Alamo. Martin Mull participates in "The Cool Kids" panel during the Fox Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour on Aug. 2, 2018, at The Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including “Roseanne” and “Arrested Development,” died June 28. He was 80. Mull, who was also a guitarist and painter, came to national fame with a recurring role on the Norman Lear-created satirical soap opera “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,” and the starring role in its spinoff, “Fernwood Tonight." His first foray into show business was as a songwriter, penning the 1970 semi-hit “A Girl Named Johnny Cash” for singer Jane Morgan. He would combine music and comedy in an act that he brought to hip Hollywood clubs in the 1970s. Mull often played slightly sleazy, somewhat slimy and often smarmy characters as he did as Teri Garr's boss and Michael Keaton's foe in 1983's “Mr. Mom.” He played Colonel Mustard in the 1985 movie adaptation of the board game “Clue,” which, like many things Mull appeared in, has become a cult classic. The 1980s also brought what many thought was his best work, “A History of White People in America,” a mockumentary that first aired on Cinemax. Mull co-created the show and starred as a “60 Minutes” style investigative reporter investigating all things milquetoast and mundane. Willard was again a co-star. In the 1990s he was best known for his recurring role on several seasons on “Roseanne,” in which he played a warmer, less sleazy boss to the title character, an openly gay man whose partner was played by Willard, . Mull would later play private eye Gene Parmesan on “Arrested Development,” a cult-classic character on a cult-classic show, and would be nominated for an Emmy, his first, in 2016 for a guest run on “Veep.” Screenwriter Robert Towne poses at The Regency Hotel, March 7, 2006, in New York. Towne, the Oscar-winning screenplay writer of "Shampoo," "The Last Detail" and other acclaimed films whose work on "Chinatown" became a model of the art form and helped define the jaded allure of his native Los Angeles, died Monday, July 1, 2024, surrounded by family at his home in Los Angeles, said publicist Carri McClure. She declined to comment on any cause of death. Vic Seixas of the United States backhands a volley from Denmark's Jurgen Ulrich in the first round of men's singles match at Wimbledon, England, June 27, 1967. Vic Seixas, a Wimbledon winner and tennis Hall of Famer who was the oldest living Grand Slam champion, has died July 5 at the age of 100. The International Tennis Hall of Fame announced Seixas’ death on Saturday July 6, 2024, based on confirmation from his daughter Tori. In this June 30, 2020, file photo, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., speaks to reporters following a GOP policy meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Oak Ridge Boys, from left, Joe Bonsall, Richard Sterban, Duane Allen and William Lee Golden hold their awards for Top Vocal Group and Best Album of the Year for "Ya'll Come Back Saloon", during the 14th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards in Los Angeles, Calif., May 3, 1979. Bonsall died on July 9, 2024, from complications of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis in Hendersonville, Tenn. He was 76. Shelley Duvall poses for photographers at the 30th Cannes Film Festival in France, May 27, 1977. Duvall, whose wide-eyed, winsome presence was a mainstay in the films of Robert Altman and who co-starred in Stanley Kubrick's “The Shining,” died July 11. She was 75. Dr. Ruth Westheimer holds a copy of her book "Sex for Dummies" at the International Frankfurt Book Fair 'Frankfurter Buchmesse' in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. Westheimer, the sex therapist who became a pop icon, media star and best-selling author through her frank talk about once-taboo bedroom topics, died on July 12, 2024. She was 96. Richard Simmons sits for a portrait in Los Angeles, June 23, 1982. Simmons, a fitness guru who urged the overweight to exercise and eat better, died July 13 at the age of 76. Actor James Sikking poses for a photograph at the Los Angeles gala celebrating the 20th anniversary of the National Organization for Women, Dec. 1, 1986. Sikking, who starred as a hardened police lieutenant on “Hill Street Blues” and as the titular character's kindhearted dad on “Doogie Howser, M.D.,” died July 13 of complications from dementia, his publicist Cynthia Snyder said in a statement. He was 90. Pat Williams chats with media before the 2004 NBA draft in Orlando, Fla. Lou Dobbs speaks Feb. 24, 2017, at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Md. Bob Newhart, center, poses with members of the cast and crew of the "Bob Newhart Show," from top left, Marcia Wallace, Bill Daily, Jack Riley, and, Suzanne Pleshette, foreground left, and Dick Martin at TV Land's 35th anniversary tribute to "The Bob Newhart Show" on Sept. 5, 2007, in Beverly Hills, Calif. holds his life time achievement award backstage at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards on Feb. 8, 2009, in Los Angeles. Sculptress Elizabeth Catlett, left, then-Washington D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon, center, and then-curator, division of community life, Smithsonian institution Bernice Johnson Reagon chat during the reception at the Candace awards on June 25, 1991 in New York. Reagon, a musician and scholar who used her rich, powerful contralto voice in the service of the American Civil Rights Movement and human rights struggles around the world, died on July 16, 2024, according to her daughter's social media post. She was 81. Erica Ash, an actor and comedian skilled in sketch comedy who starred in the parody series “Mad TV” and “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” has died. She was 46. Her publicist and a statement by her mother, Diann, says Ash died July 28 in Los Angeles of cancer. Ash impersonated Michelle Obama and Condoleeza Rice on “Mad TV,” a Fox sketch series, and was a key performer on the Rosie O’Donnell-created series “The Big Gay Sketch Show.” Her other credits included “Scary Movie V,” “Uncle Drew” and the LeBron James-produced basketball dramedy “Survivor’s Remorse.” On the BET series “Real Husbands of Hollywood,” Ash played the ex-wife of Kevin Hart’s character. Jack Russell, the lead singer of the bluesy '80s metal band Great White whose hits included “Once Bitten Twice Shy” and “Rock Me” and was fronting his band the night 100 people died in a 2003 nightclub fire in Rhode Island, died Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. He was 63. Juan “Chi Chi” Rodriguez, a Hall of Fame golfer whose antics on the greens and inspiring life story made him among the sport’s most popular players during a long professional career, died Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. Susan Wojcicki, the former YouTube chief executive officer and longtime Google executive, died Friday, Aug. 9, 2024, after suffering with non small cell lung cancer for the past two years. She was 56. Frank Selvy, an All-America guard at Furman who scored an NCAA Division I-record 100 points in a game and later played nine NBA seasons, died Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024. He was 91. Wallace “Wally” Amos, the creator of the cookie empire that took his name and made it famous and who went on to become a children’s literacy advocate, died Tuesday, Aug. 13, 2024, from complications with dementia. He was 88. Gena Rowlands, hailed as one of the greatest actors to ever practice the craft and a guiding light in independent cinema as a star in groundbreaking movies by her director husband, John Cassavetes, and who later charmed audiences in her son's tear-jerker “The Notebook,” died Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. She was 94. Peter Marshall, the actor and singer turned game show host who played straight man to the stars for 16 years on “The Hollywood Squares,” died. Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024 He was 98. Alain Delon, the internationally acclaimed French actor who embodied both the bad guy and the policeman and made hearts throb around the world, died Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. He was 88. Phil Donahue, whose pioneering daytime talk show launched an indelible television genre that brought success to Oprah Winfrey, Montel Williams, Ellen DeGeneres and many others, died Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024, after a long illness. He was 88. Al Attles, a Hall of Famer who coached the 1975 NBA champion Warriors and spent more than six decades with the organization as a player, general manager and most recently team ambassador, died Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2024. He was 87. John Amos, who starred as the family patriarch on the hit 1970s sitcom “Good Times” and earned an Emmy nomination for his role in the seminal 1977 miniseries “Roots,” died Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2024. He was 84. James Darren, a teen idol who helped ignite the 1960s surfing craze as a charismatic beach boy paired off with Sandra Dee in the hit film “Gidget,” died Monday, Sept. 2, 2024. He was 88. Chad McQueen, an actor known for his performances in the “Karate Kid” movies and the son of the late actor and racer Steve McQueen, died Sep. 11. His lawyer confirmed his death at age 63. McQueen's family shared a statement on social media saying he lived a life “filled with love and dedication.” McQueen was a professional race car driver, like his father, and competed in the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans and the 24 Hours of Daytona races. He is survived by his wife Jeanie and three children, Chase, Madison and Steven, who is an actor best known for “The Vampire Diaries.” Tito Jackson, one of the brothers who made up the beloved pop group the Jackson 5, died at age 70 on Sept. 15. Jackson was the third of nine children, including global superstars Michael and Janet. The Jackson 5 included brothers Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael. They signed with Berry Gordy’s Motown empire in the 1960s. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997 and produced several No. 1 hits in the 1970s, including “ABC,” “I Want You Back” and “I’ll Be There.” John David “JD” Souther has died. He was a prolific songwriter and musician whose collaborations with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt helped shape the country-rock sound that took root in Southern California in the 1970s. Souther joined in on some of the Eagles’ biggest hits, such as “Best of My Love,” “New Kid in Town,” and “Heartache Tonight." The Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee also collaborated with James Taylor, Bob Seger, Bonnie Raitt and many more. His biggest hit as a solo artist was “You’re Only Lonely.” He was about to tour with Karla Bonoff. Souther died Sept. 17 at his home in New Mexico, at 78. In this photo, JD Souther and Alison Krauss attend the Songwriters Hall of Fame 44th annual induction and awards gala on Thursday, June 13, 2013 in New York. Sen. Dan Evans stands with his three sons, from left, Mark, Bruce and Dan Jr., after he won the election for Washington's senate seat in Seattle, Nov. 8, 1983. John Ashton, the veteran character actor who memorably played the gruff but lovable police detective John Taggart in the “Beverly Hills Cop” films, died Thursday, Sept. 26, 2024. He was 76. Maggie Smith, who won an Oscar for 1969 film “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” and won new fans in the 21st century as the dowager Countess of Grantham in “Downton Abbey” and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films, died Sept. 27 at 89. Smith's publicist announced the news Friday. She was frequently rated the preeminent British female performer of a generation that included Vanessa Redgrave and Judi Dench. “Jean Brodie” brought her the Academy Award for best actress in 1969. Smith added a supporting actress Oscar for “California Suite” in 1978. Kris Kristofferson, a Rhodes scholar with a deft writing style and rough charisma who became a country music superstar and an A-list Hollywood actor, died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. He was 88. Drake Hogestyn, the “Days of Our Lives” star who appeared on the show for 38 years, died Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. He was 70. Ron Ely, the tall, musclebound actor who played the title character in the 1960s NBC series “Tarzan,” died Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, at age 86. Dikembe Mutombo, a Basketball Hall of Famer who was one of the best defensive players in NBA history and a longtime global ambassador for the game, died Monday, Sept. 30, 2024, from brain cancer, the league announced. He was 58. Frank Fritz, left, part of a two-man team who drove around the U.S. looking for antiques and collectibles to buy and resell on the reality show “American Pickers,” died Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. He was 60. He's shown here with co-host Mike Wolfe at the A+E Networks 2015 Upfront in New York on April 30, 2015. Pete Rose, baseball’s career hits leader and fallen idol who undermined his historic achievements and Hall of Fame dreams by gambling on the game he loved and once embodied, died Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. He was 83. Cissy Houston, the mother of Whitney Houston and a two-time Grammy winner who performed alongside superstar musicians like Elvis Presley and Aretha Franklin, died Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in her New Jersey home. She was 91. Ethel Kennedy, the wife of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, who raised their 11 children after he was assassinated and remained dedicated to social causes and the family’s legacy for decades thereafter, died on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024, her family said. She was 96. Former One Direction singer Liam Payne, 31, whose chart-topping British boy band generated a global following of swooning fans, was found dead Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, local officials said. He was 31. Mitzi Gaynor, among the last survivors of the so-called golden age of the Hollywood musical, died of natural causes in Los Angeles on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. She was 93. Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired “Fernandomania” while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, died Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024. He was 63. Jack Jones, a Grammy-winning crooner known for “The Love Boat” television show theme song, died, Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2024. He was 86. Phil Lesh, a founding member of the Grateful Dead, died Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at age 84. Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," died Tuesday, Oct 29, 2024. She was 79. Quincy Jones, the multitalented music titan whose vast legacy ranged from producing Michael Jackson’s historic “Thriller” album to writing prize-winning film and television scores and collaborating with Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles and hundreds of other recording artists, died Sunday, Nov 3, 2024. He was 91 Bobby Allison, founder of racing’s “Alabama Gang” and a NASCAR Hall of Famer, died Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. He was 86. Song Jae-lim, a South Korean actor known for his roles in K-dramas “Moon Embracing the Sun” and “Queen Woo,” was found dead at his home in capital Seoul, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024. He was 39. Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power in the sport, died Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. He was 82. Arthur Frommer, whose "Europe on 5 Dollars a Day" guidebooks revolutionized leisure travel by convincing average Americans to take budget vacations abroad, died Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. He was 95. British actor Timothy West, who played the classic Shakespeare roles of King Lear and Macbeth and who in recent years along with his wife, Prunella Scales, enchanted millions of people with their boating exploits on Britain's waterways, died Tuesday, Nov 12, 2024. He was 90. Former Chicago Bulls forward Bob Love, a three-time All-Star who spent 11 years in the NBA, died Monday, Nov. 18, 2024. He was 81. Receive the latest in local entertainment news in your inbox weekly!Food Bites: Nioka Steakhouse fires up just in time for summer

Watch Arsenal vs Everton: Live streams and TV channels for Premier League clashInvestment Portfolio Management Software Market Overview and Leading Players: PortfolioShop, Vestserve, APEXSOFT, Eze Software, eFront, SimCorp, Dynamo Software, G.E. 12-15-2024 07:46 PM CET | Business, Economy, Finances, Banking & Insurance Press release from: STATS N DATA Investment Portfolio Management Software Market The Investment Portfolio Management Software Market stands as a pivotal element in the financial ecosystem, providing essential tools for managing assets, optimizing investment strategies, and enhancing overall portfolio performance. As companies and individual investors increasingly recognize the importance of effective asset management, the demand for sophisticated portfolio management solutions has surged. This market encompasses a diverse range of applications, from small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to large corporations, making it a critical area of focus for financial service providers. You can access a sample PDF report here: https://www.statsndata.org/download-sample.php?id=92583 Recent developments in this market have been marked by significant technological advancements. These include the integration of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and cloud computing technologies, which have revolutionized the way portfolio management is conducted. Strategic collaborations among industry players have further accelerated growth, enabling the development of more robust and user-friendly software solutions. As these technologies evolve, they provide actionable insights that align with current market trends, helping stakeholders navigate the complexities of investment management. Key Growth Drivers and Trends Several critical factors are driving demand in the Investment Portfolio Management Software Market. Sustainability has emerged as a key driver, with investors increasingly seeking solutions that prioritize environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. As consumer awareness regarding sustainability grows, companies are prompted to adapt their investment strategies accordingly. This shift is leading to a greater emphasis on software solutions that can integrate ESG metrics into portfolio management. Digitization is another significant factor influencing market dynamics. The rapid adoption of digital solutions across industries has made it imperative for financial institutions to embrace technology-driven portfolio management systems. This transition not only enhances operational efficiency but also improves customer engagement and satisfaction. Furthermore, the rise of consumer awareness regarding investment options and strategies is pushing firms to offer more tailored and transparent solutions. Emerging trends such as AI integration and product customization are shaping the market's future. AI technologies are being leveraged to analyze vast amounts of data, providing insights that drive informed decision-making. Customization capabilities allow firms to cater to the unique needs of their clients, enhancing competitive advantage and customer loyalty. Additionally, the emergence of innovative technologies, including blockchain and IoT, is poised to disrupt traditional investment management practices. Market Segmentation The Investment Portfolio Management Software Market can be segmented as follows: - Segment by Type - Cloud-Based - On-Premise - Segment by Application - SME - Large Enterprise - Personal Use - Others The cloud-based segment is witnessing robust growth due to its flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. On-premise solutions, while still relevant, are gradually being overshadowed by the advantages offered by cloud technology. The application segmentation highlights the versatility of these software solutions, catering to a wide range of users from individual investors to large enterprises. Get 30% Discount On Full Report: https://www.statsndata.org/ask-for-discount.php?id=92583 Competitive Landscape The Investment Portfolio Management Software Market is characterized by a competitive landscape comprising various key players. Leading companies include: - PortfolioShop: Known for its innovative features that enhance investment tracking and reporting. - Vestserve: Focuses on providing tailored solutions for asset management firms, enhancing operational efficiency. - APEXSOFT: Offers comprehensive portfolio management tools that integrate seamlessly with existing financial systems. - Eze Software: Renowned for its advanced analytics capabilities and user-friendly interface. - eFront: Provides cutting-edge solutions that cater to private equity and alternative investments. - SimCorp: Known for its integrated solutions that support investment management across various asset classes. - Dynamo Software: Delivers specialized tools for private equity and venture capital firms. - G.E.: Offers a range of financial services, including portfolio management solutions that leverage advanced technology. - Quicken: A well-known personal finance tool that also provides investment tracking capabilities. - Macroaxis: Focuses on providing AI-driven investment insights and portfolio optimization tools. - Misys: Known for its comprehensive financial software solutions that serve various sectors. - Elysys: Provides innovative software solutions that streamline investment processes. - Quant IX Software: Offers advanced quantitative analysis tools for investment management. - ProTrak International: Specializes in portfolio management solutions for financial advisors. - OWL Software: Focuses on delivering user-friendly investment management software. - Beiley Software: Known for its effective risk management tools. - SoftTarget: Offers solutions that enhance investment decision-making processes. - SS&C Tech: A leader in providing technology solutions for asset management. - Riskturn: Focuses on risk analysis and portfolio optimization. - TransparenTech: Known for its focus on transparency and efficiency in investment management. - Avantech Software: Delivers innovative solutions that enhance investment tracking and reporting. These companies are at the forefront of innovation, driving advancements in technology and expanding their market presence through strategic partnerships and product enhancements. Opportunities and Challenges While the Investment Portfolio Management Software Market presents significant growth opportunities, it is not without its challenges. Emerging regions offer untapped potential for companies looking to expand their footprint. As consumer preferences evolve, there is a growing demand for customized solutions that cater to specific investment strategies and goals. However, challenges such as regulatory constraints can impede market growth. Navigating complex compliance requirements necessitates robust solutions that can adapt to changing regulations. Additionally, operational inefficiencies present hurdles for firms seeking to streamline their investment processes. Addressing these challenges requires innovative approaches and a focus on continuous improvement. Another challenge that the industry faces is the shortage of skilled talent. As technology evolves rapidly, the demand for professionals with expertise in advanced portfolio management systems is increasing. Companies must invest in training and development to ensure they have the right talent to leverage these technologies effectively. Technological Advancements Cutting-edge technologies are significantly impacting the Investment Portfolio Management Software Market. AI and machine learning are among the most transformative technologies, enabling firms to analyze data more efficiently and derive actionable insights. These technologies facilitate predictive analytics, which can enhance decision-making processes and improve investment outcomes. Additionally, the integration of virtual tools and IoT-driven systems is reshaping the way investment management is conducted. These technologies enable real-time data collection and analysis, allowing firms to respond swiftly to market changes. As these innovations become more prevalent, they are expected to further enhance the capabilities of portfolio management software. Research Methodology and Insights STATS N DATA employs a comprehensive research methodology to provide accurate insights into the Investment Portfolio Management Software Market. Our approach includes both top-down and bottom-up methodologies, ensuring a holistic view of market dynamics. We conduct extensive primary and secondary research, engaging industry experts and analyzing market trends. Triangulation techniques are utilized to validate findings and ensure the reliability of our insights. By synthesizing data from various sources, we provide a nuanced understanding of market developments, helping stakeholders make informed decisions. In conclusion, the Investment Portfolio Management Software Market is poised for significant growth, driven by technological advancements and evolving consumer preferences. Companies that adapt to these changes and leverage innovative solutions will be well-positioned to capitalize on emerging opportunities. As the market continues to evolve, STATS N DATA remains committed to delivering valuable insights that empower stakeholders in navigating this dynamic landscape. For customization requests, please visit: https://www.statsndata.org/request-customization.php?id=92583 Full Investment Portfolio Management Software Market Report Link: https://www.statsndata.org/report/Global-Investment-Portfolio-Management-Software-Market-92583 Related Reports: Digital Insurance Market https://www.statsndata.org/report/digital-insurance-market-39559 Car Engine Belt Market https://www.statsndata.org/report/car-engine-belt-market-17085 Eye Tracking Market https://www.statsndata.org/report/eye-tracking-market-10074 Mold Control Solution Market https://www.statsndata.org/report/mold-control-solution-market-280099 Visual Merchandising Software Market https://www.statsndata.org/report/visual-merchandising-software-market-266858 John Jones Sales & Marketing Head | Stats N Data Phone: +1 (315) 642-4324 Email: sales@statsndata.org Website: www.statsndata.org STATS N DATA is a trusted provider of industry intelligence and market research, delivering actionable insights to businesses across diverse sectors. We specialize in helping organizations navigate complex markets with advanced analytics, detailed market segmentation, and strategic guidance. Our expertise spans industries including technology, healthcare, telecommunications, energy, food & beverages, and more. Committed to accuracy and innovation, we provide tailored reports that empower clients to make informed decisions, identify emerging opportunities, and achieve sustainable growth. Our team of skilled analysts leverages cutting-edge methodologies to ensure every report addresses the unique challenges of our clients. At STATS N DATA, we transform data into knowledge and insights into success. Partner with us to gain a competitive edge in today's fast-paced business environment. For more information, visit https://www.statsndata.org or contact us today at sales@statsndata.org This release was published on openPR.Teenage West Ham goalkeeper dies aged 15 after cancer battleSihoo Doro C300 Pro Ergonomic Chair Delivers Comfort and Style

 

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zbet Black plastic kitchen utensil risks were overstated. But you should still toss them, group saysOur Favorite New Car Reveals of 2024US budget airlines are struggling. Will pursuing premium passengers solve their problems? DALLAS (AP) — Delta and United Airlines have become the most profitable U.S. airlines by targeting premium customers while also winning a significant share of budget travelers. That is squeezing smaller low-fare carriers like Spirit Airlines, which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Some travel industry experts think Spirit’s troubles indicate less-wealthy passengers will have fewer choices and higher prices. Other discount airlines are on better financial footing but also are lagging far behind the full-service airlines when it comes to recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic. Most industry experts think Frontier and other so-called ultra-low-cost carriers will fill the vacuum if Spirit shrinks, and that there's still plenty of competition to prevent prices from spiking. Bitcoin ticks closer to $100,000 in extended surge following US elections NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin is jumping again, setting another new high above $99,000 overnight. The cryptocurrency has been shattering records almost daily since the U.S. presidential election, and has rocketed more than 40% higher in just two weeks. It's now at the doorstep of $100,000. Cryptocurrencies and related investments like crypto exchange-traded funds have rallied because the incoming Trump administration is expected to be more “crypto-friendly.” Still, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. And while some are bullish, other experts continue to warn of investment risks. Australia rejects Elon Musk's claim that it plans to control access to the internet MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian Cabinet minister has rejected X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s allegation that the government intends to control all Australians' access to the internet through legislation that would ban young children from social media. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Friday that Musk’s criticism was “unsurprising” after the government introduced legislation to Parliament that would fine platforms including X up to $133 million for allowing children under 16 to hold social media accounts. The spat continues months of open hostility between the Australian government and the tech billionaire over regulators’ efforts to reduce public harm from social media. Parliament could pass the legislation as soon as next week. Oil company Phillips 66 faces federal charges related to alleged Clean Water Act violations LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oil company Phillips 66 has been federally indicted in connection with alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in California. The Texas-based company is accused of discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater containing excessive amounts of oil and grease. The U.S. Department of Justice announced the indictment on Thursday. Phillips is charged with two counts of negligently violating the Clean Water Act and four counts of knowingly violating the Clean Water Act. An arraignment date has not been set. A spokesperson for the company said it was cooperating with prosecutors. US regulators seek to break up Google, forcing Chrome sale as part of monopoly punishment U.S. regulators want a federal judge to break up Google to prevent the company from continuing to squash competition through its dominant search engine after a court found it had maintained an abusive monopoly over the past decade. The proposed breakup floated in a 23-page document filed late Wednesday by the U.S. Justice Department calls for Google to sell its industry-leading Chrome web browser and impose restrictions designed to prevent Android from favoring its search engine. Regulators also want to ban Google from forging multibillion-dollar deals to lock in its dominant search engine as the default option on Apple’s iPhone and other devices. What you need to know about the proposed measures designed to curb Google's search monopoly U.S. regulators are proposing aggressive measures to restore competition to the online search market after a federal judge ruled that Google maintained an illegal monopoly. The sweeping set of recommendations filed late Wednesday could radically alter Google’s business. Regulators want Google to sell off its industry-leading Chrome web browser. They outlined a range of behavioral measures such as prohibiting Google from using search results to favor its own services such as YouTube, and forcing it to license search index data to its rivals. They're not going as far as to demand Google spin off Android, but are leaving that door open if the remedies don't work. Stock market today: Wall Street edges higher as it heads for a winning week NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks edged higher on Wall Street, keeping the market on track for its fifth gain in a row. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in midday trading Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 226 points and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.2%. Gap soared after reporting quarterly results that easily beat analysts' estimates. EchoStar, parent company of the Dish satellite television provider, fell after DirecTV called off its purchase of the company. European markets were mostly higher and Asian markets ended mixed. Treasury yields held relatively steady in the bond market. Crude oil prices gained ground. Apple and Google face UK investigation into mobile browser dominance LONDON (AP) — A British watchdog says Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers. The watchdog's report Friday recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year. The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker’s tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. The CMA’s report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers “the clearest or easiest option.” Apple said it disagreed with the findings. German auto supplier Bosch to cut 5,500 jobs in further sign of carmakers' woes FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's technology and services company Bosch is cutting its automotive division workforce by as many as 5,500 jobs in the next several years, in another sign of the headwinds hitting the German and global auto industries. The company cited stagnating global auto sales, too much factory capacity in the auto industry compared to sales prospects and a slower than expected transition to electric-powered, software-controlled vehicles. Some 3,500 of the job reductions would come before the end of 2027 and would hit the part of the company that develops driver assistance and automated driving technologies. About half those job reductions would be at locations in Germany. Indigenous leaders travel to UK from Peru to draw attention to oil damage and banking LONDON (AP) — Indigenous leaders from the Wampis Nation in Peru are urging lawmakers at the House of Commons in London to ban international banks’ support for Amazon oil activities they say harm their ancestral rainforests. HSBC bank, JPMorgan Chase and Santander helped finance the Peruvian state-owned oil company Petroperu as it sought to upgrade a coastal refinery. In the last decade there have been dozens of leaks along a pipeline that serves the refinery. The banks say they adhere to environmental guidelines and take great care over which project to back. The Indigenous members were among several delegations also pressing for a proposed law that would make it a crime for British businesses to harm the environment.

Jimmy Carter Dies: Longest-Living U.S. President Was 100AP News Summary at 6:42 p.m. ESTHow to protect your communications through encryptionAmorim set for Man Utd bow, Man City aim to end slump

The AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — Jeremy Lorenz scored 20 points as Wofford beat Kentucky Christian 100-55 on Saturday. Lorenz shot 8 for 10 (2 for 4 from 3-point range) and 2 of 3 from the free-throw line for the Terriers (6-7). Dillon Bailey scored 16 points while going 5 of 13 from the floor, including 3 for 10 from 3-point range, and 3 for 3 from the line. Anthony Arrington, Jr. shot 4 of 10 from the field, including 2 for 7 from 3-point range, and went 2 for 3 from the line to finish with 12 points. D’Angelo Stoxstill led the Knights in scoring, finishing with 15 points and six rebounds. Kentucky Christian also got 12 points from Dejuan Johnson. LeMar Northington also had 12 points. Wofford hosts UNC Greensboro in its next matchup on Wednesday. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Liverpool v Leicester: Premier League – live

Defence Minister Bill Blair says long-awaited U.S.-made missile defence systems that the Canadian government helped to purchase have been delivered to Ukraine. Blair told the House defence committee Thursday morning that the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) Ottawa pledged $406 million for almost two years ago are now in the hands of the Ukranians. "I can't give you more information on that because of operational security, but we have been able to deliver at long last — and I think it's going to make a difference because it will enable them to protect communities," Blair told the committee. Canada took 4 months to send money after deciding to buy air defence system for Ukraine New Putin says Russia fired 'hypersonic ballistic missile' at Ukraine in response to use of U.S., British weapons Analysis Ukraine can fire U.S. missiles into Russia. The Kremlin changes its nuke policy. Is this what everyone feared? The government tried to expedite the delivery by piggybacking on a larger purchase the U.S. government was making. The planned $406-million purchase was announced in January 2023 — but as the Department of National Defence told CBC News in September, the federal government didn't transfer funds to Washington to pay for the system and start the process until March 2023. Washington couldn't begin to negotiate a contract with the manufacturers until it had both its own funds and Canada's money in hand, and also needed to seek congressional approval to buy the NASAMs. Congress gave the green light in May 2023. WATCH | Putin says Russia used new medium-range ballistic missile: Putin says Russia used new medium-range ballistic missile 4 hours ago Duration 0:39 Russian President Vladimir Putin says his military launched a strike on Ukraine using a new intermediate-range ballistic missile in response to Ukraine's use of U.S. and British long-range weapons. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow fired a new medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile at a military facility in the south-central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in response to what he calls Western aggression after Kyiv got the green light to fire missiles into Russia. According to Ukrainian officials in Dnipro, two people were injured in the missile attack when it hit an industrial facility and what they described as a rehabilitation centre for people with disabilities. The U.S. recently gave Ukraine permission to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at targets on Russian soil and the U.K. has given the same green light. On Tuesday, Russia published changes to its nuclear doctrine which lower the threshold for what would prompt the Kremlin to authorize a nuclear attack.

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. (NYSE:AQN) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.07India's former prime minister Manmohan Singh, architect of economic reforms, dies at 92LONDON: “Human intelligence,” the cultural critic Neil Postman once wrote, “is among the most fragile things in nature. It doesn’t take much to distract it, suppress it, or even annihilate it.” The year was 1988, a former Hollywood actor was in the White House, and Postman was worried about the ascendancy of pictures over words in American media, culture and politics. Television "conditions our minds to apprehend the world through fragmented pictures and forces other media to orient themselves in that direction", he argued in an essay in his book Conscientious Objections. “A culture does not have to force scholars to flee to render them impotent. A culture does not have to burn books to assure that they will not be read ... There are other ways to achieve stupidity.” DECLINE IN LITERACY SKILLS What might have seemed curmudgeonly in 1988 reads more like prophecy from the perspective of 2024. This month, the OECD released the results of a vast exercise : In-person assessments of the literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills of 160,000 adults aged 16 to 65 in 31 different countries and economies. Compared with the last set of assessments a decade earlier, the trends in literacy skills were striking. Proficiency improved significantly in only two countries (Finland and Denmark), remained stable in 14, and declined significantly in 11, with the biggest deterioration in South Korea, Lithuania, New Zealand and Poland. Among adults with tertiary-level education (such as university graduates), literacy proficiency fell in 13 countries and only increased in Finland, while nearly all countries and economies experienced declines in literacy proficiency among adults with below upper secondary education. Singapore and the US had the biggest inequalities in both literacy and numeracy. “Thirty per cent of Americans read at a level that you would expect from a 10-year-old child,” Andreas Schleicher, director for education and skills at the OECD, told me – referring to the proportion of people in the US who scored level 1 or below in literacy. “It is actually hard to imagine – that every third person you meet on the street has difficulties reading even simple things.” In some countries, the deterioration is partly explained by an ageing population and rising levels of immigration, but Schleicher says these factors alone do not fully account for the trend. His own hypothesis would come as no surprise to Postman: That technology has changed the way many of us consume information, away from longer, more complex pieces of writing, such as books and newspaper articles, to short social media posts and video clips. At the same time, social media has made it more likely that you "read stuff that confirms your views, rather than engages with diverse perspectives, and that’s what you need to get to [the top levels] on the [OECD literacy] assessment, where you need to distinguish fact from opinion, navigate ambiguity, manage complexity", Schleicher explained. IMPLICATIONS FOR POLITICS AND PUBLIC DEBATE The implications for politics and the quality of public debate are already evident. These, too, were foreseen. In 2007, writer Caleb Crain wrote an article called Twilight of the Books in The New Yorker magazine about what a possible post-literate culture might look like. In oral cultures, he wrote, cliche and stereotype are valued, conflict and name-calling are prized because they are memorable, and speakers tend not to correct themselves because “it is only in a literate culture that the past’s inconsistencies have to be accounted for”. Does that sound familiar? These trends are not unavoidable or irreversible. Finland demonstrates the potential for high-quality education and strong social norms to sustain a highly literate population, even in a world where TikTok exists. England shows the difference that improved schooling can make: There, the literacy proficiency of 16-year-olds to 24-year-olds was significantly better than a decade ago. THE QUESTION OF AI The question of whether AI could alleviate or exacerbate the problem is more tricky. Systems like ChatGPT can perform well on many reading and writing tasks: They can parse reams of information and reduce it to summaries. A number of studies suggest that, when deployed in the workplace, these tools can significantly increase the performance of lower-skilled workers. In one study, researchers tracked the impact of an AI tool on customer service agents who provided technical support via written chat boxes. The AI tool, trained on the conversational patterns of top performers, provided real-time text suggestions to agents on how to respond to customers. The study found lower-skilled workers became more productive and their communication patterns became more similar to those of higher-skilled workers. David Autor, an economics professor at MIT, has even argued that AI tools could enable more workers to perform higher-skilled roles and help restore “the middle-skill, middle-class heart of the US labour market”. But, as Autor says, in order to make good use of a tool to “level up” your skills, you need a decent foundation to begin with. Absent that, Schleicher worries that people with poor literacy skills will become “naive consumers of prefabricated content”. In other words, without solid skills of your own, it is only a few short steps from being supported by the machine, to finding yourself dependent on it, or subject to it.

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. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” the center said in posting about his death on the social media platform X. It added in a statement that he died peacefully, surrounded by his family. 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.Week-in-Review: Keir Starmer needs an Elon Musk strategy

THE ADOPTION of barcode technology could help streamline Philippine health professionals’ workflows and address inefficiencies in the medical supply chain, according to GS1 Philippines, Inc. “Technologies like tools for data storage and exchange, remote data capture, and virtual care are proven to enhance health outcomes by improving medical diagnoses, treatment decisions, digital therapeutics, clinical trials, and fostering evidence-based knowledge for healthcare professionals,” GS1 Philippines said in a statement. Through barcode technology under GS1 standards, health manufacturers and distributors can easily record data in clinical systems, it said. Healthcare professionals can also use barcodes for patient identification, medication administration, and the tracking of medical supplies and equipment. “At GS1 Philippines, we believe that adopting streamlined barcode technology in healthcare is crucial for enhancing patient safety and improving the efficiency of healthcare workflow,” GS1 Philippines’ Roberto S. Claudio was quoted as saying. “This innovation empowers health professionals to deliver better care by having a tool for data integration and interoperability.” “Integrating barcode technology is not just about digitalization — it’s about creating a safer, more transparent healthcare system that improves patient care, reduces errors, and ensures an efficient supply chain of authentic medicines and medical products, protecting patients from counterfeit goods,” Teodoro B. Padilla, executive director of the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Association of the Philippines, added. The push for modernizing healthcare processes comes as the World Health Organization (WHO) recently highlighted the transformative potential of digital transformation on healthcare. Under the WHO’s Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025, tools specializing in data storage and exchange, remote data capture, and virtual care can enhance medical diagnoses, treatment decisions, digital therapeutics, and clinical trials. “There is a growing consensus in the global health community that the strategic and innovative use of digital and cutting-edge information and communications technologies will be an essential enabling factor towards ensuring that one billion more people benefit from universal health coverage,” it said. — Beatriz Marie D. CruzStarting Jan. 1, older adults on Medicare will spend no more than $2,000 a year on prescription drugs when a new price cap on out-of-pocket payments from the Inflation Reduction Act goes into effect. Experts say the change is expected to provide major relief for cancer patients who often struggle to afford their medications due to the high cost of cancer drugs. Diana DiVito, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, recalls the shock she felt after she got her first co-payment for the cancer drug Imbruvica in 2016. The 83-year-old was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a type of blood cancer that begins in the bone marrow, in 2005. She underwent treatment, including chemotherapy, and went into remission. When she had a recurrence, she started taking Imbruvica. By 2021, DiVito had spent $56,000 out-of-pocket on the daily pill. “The co-pays blew me away,” said DiVito, who added she’s been on limited income since her husband died in 2023. “It started out the first year was $8,500 out of pocket, and then it went up about $1,000 every year after that.” The new price cap will apply to all prescription drugs under Medicare Part D; it won’t apply to drugs given to patients in the hospital or other health care settings, such as chemotherapy or anesthesia. Medicare recipients will also have the new option of spreading their payments out over the course of the year , rather than paying a large co-payment all at once. Before the change, people on Medicare typically had to spend $7,000 or more out of pocket on their prescription drugs before they qualified for so-called catastrophic coverage, when insurance kicks in and covers most of the drug’s cost. Under this coverage, patients are charged a small co-payment or a percentage of a drug’s cost, usually 5%. Typically, DiVito would hit catastrophic coverage almost immediately after her plan reset each January. While that helped with costs for most of the year, it meant the first few prescriptions she filled were financially painful. Anticipating the cap next month, DiVito said she has much less stress and is spending a little more freely. “I’m being a little more generous with my grandchildren this Christmas,” she said. The Inflation Reduction Act’s $2,000 price cap comes after years of public outcry about the soaring cost of prescription drugs , including cancer medications, in the United States. The law introduced the cap gradually, starting with a cap of $3,250 on out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs in 2024. More than 65 million people, mainly older adults, are enrolled in Medicare. A study published in September in JAMA Network Open found that annual out-of-pocket costs for cancer medications averaged $11,284 for Medicare Part D beneficiaries in 2023. (Part D refers to coverage for prescription drugs.) A separate report from the nonprofit group AARP found that 3.2 million Medicare recipients are expected to see savings from the out-of-pocket cap in 2025. By 2029, the number is expected to increase to 4.1 million enrollees. The report didn’t break down savings for people with certain conditions, such as cancer. However, research shows about 60% of cancer cases occur in adults 65 and older. On average, 1.4 million enrollees who reach the out-of-pocket cap from 2025 to 2029 are estimated to see annual savings of $1,000 or more, the AARP report found, and just over 420,000 will see savings of more than $3,000. Mary and Jim Scott of Oregon are among the Medicare enrollees expecting to see savings next year. In 2023, the couple’s out-of-pocket prescription drug expenses skyrocketed to $8,000, up from their previous annual average of $240. It was a difficult year during which Jim, 83, faced multiple serious health issues, including congestive heart failure, an acute kidney injury and bladder cancer. The new cap won’t apply to drugs given in a health care setting (these are covered under Medicare Part B), meaning Jim will still be responsible for the costs of chemotherapy not covered by his insurance. Still, Mary, 73, said the change offers a sense of relief after more than a year of struggling with the soaring costs of cancer care, making it easier for the couple to stay afloat and focus on what matters most: Jim’s health, their grandchildren, their dog and their garden. “We’re not planning any amazing trips. We’re still needing to live our low-key lives,” Mary said. “But by the end of the summer, maybe we’ll be able to put up some new siding on the house and do a few things that we’ve deferred.” Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues, noted that in the nearly 20 years since Medicare Part D was introduced, there has never been an annual cap on out-of-pocket costs. She co-wrote an analysis that found about 1.5 million people on Medicare had out-of-pocket prescription drug costs exceeding $2,000 in 2021 and would have benefited from the cap. Of the 1.5 million, about 200,000 Medicare enrollees spent $5,000 or more for their prescriptions that year. “So, for people who need really expensive drugs or who take a lot of medications where the monthly cost adds up, they may have had to pay several thousands of dollars out of pocket each year,” she said. Many people on Medicare are retired and live on fixed incomes, Cubanski said, meaning people often go deep into debt or even bankrupt. Arthur Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said that’s especially true for cancer patients: A survey from the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Action Network published in May found that nearly half of cancer patients have medical debt, despite most being insured. “We have many emerging treatments for cancer,” Caplan said. “They are hugely expensive.” Cubanski said that even for those who don’t spend more than $2,000 a year, the cap is still important. “The unfortunate truth is we’re all one scary diagnosis away from needing an expensive drug,” she said. George Valentine, 73, of Philadelphia, said he was at his annual physical in 2002 when his doctor noticed something unusual in his test results. Further testing revealed he had chronic lymphocytic leukemia. The medications he needed came with a hefty price tag — around $14,000 a month. While he was working in the information technology industry, this wasn’t a major issue because his job-based health insurance included an out-of-pocket maximum, which he hit every year. However, when Valentine retired in 2019, he discovered a significant gap in Medicare’s coverage. Unlike his previous insurance, Medicare had no out-of-pocket spending limit, leaving him responsible for 5% of his medication costs after reaching the catastrophic coverage phase. “Five percent of $14,000 is a lot of money,” he said. “I would get to the catastrophic phase by February in any given year, and for the rest of the year I had this burden of $700 or around there every month and it never ended.” Valentine, now an advocate for the PAN Foundation, a patient financial assistance group for people with life-threatening chronic conditions, said he would prefer the out-of-pocket cap in the New Year to be “zero.” Still, he added, with the $2,000 cap he can now at least sleep at night. “All that matters is when I hit $2,000, I’m done,” he said. This story first appeared on NBCNews.com. More from NBC News:

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www.jlbet MAN Energy Solutions has announced that the development of its ME-LGIA (Liquid Gas Injection Ammonia) engine has entered a new phase with the commencement of testing of a full-scale, two-stroke engine running on ammonia at its RCC (Research Centre Copenhagen). Ole Pyndt Hansen, Head of Two-Stroke R&D, MAN Energy Solutions, said: “Having already completed more than 12 months of testing on a single cylinder running on ammonia, it’s a significant milestone to be able to step up to full-scale engine testing. We have been busy with the conversion process over the past few months, including ensuring that all safety provisions work according to our requirements. We are now ready for the next phase that will focus on, among other parameters, combustion and emissions, engine-tuning, atomizer testing and control-system verification. This is provisionally set to continue until mid-2025.” Bjarne Foldager, Head of Two-Stroke Business, MAN Energy Solutions, said: “The market is hungry for any news related to our ME-LGIA development and this, the beginning of testing on the world’s first two-stroke, full-scale ammonia engine, is a major milestone. MAN Energy Solutions is proud to be a pioneer within the new segment of ammonia engines but it is equally as important for us to show the world that we are moving forward cautiously in a reliable and safety-first way. Now is the time to develop the technology and we look forward to revealing our progress at the appropriate time.” Source: MAN Energy SolutionsMeet Amit Goyal whose wedding the Gandhi family is attending in Jaipur



Afghan Refugees Showcase Heritage And Resilience In Art Exhibition

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks tiptoed to more records amid a mixed Tuesday of trading, tacking a touch more onto what’s already been a stellar year so far. The S&P 500 edged up by 2 points, or less than 0.1%, to set an all-time high for the 55th time this year. It’s climbed in 10 of the last 11 days and is on track for one of its best years since the turn of the millennium. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 76 points, or 0.2%, while the Nasdaq composite added 0.4% to its own record set a day earlier. AT&T rose 4.6% after it boosted its profit forecast for the year. It also announced a $10 billion plan to send cash to its investors by buying back its own stock, while saying it expects to authorize another $10 billion of repurchases in 2027. On the losing end of Wall Street was U.S. Steel, which fell 8%. President-elect Donald Trump reiterated on social media that he would not let Japan’s Nippon Steel take over the iconic Pennsylvania steelmaker. Nippon Steel announced plans last December to buy the Pittsburgh-based steel producer for $14.1 billion in cash, raising concerns about what the transaction could mean for unionized workers, supply chains and U.S. national security. Earlier this year, President Joe Biden also came out against the acquisition. Tesla sank 1.6% after a judge in Delaware reaffirmed a previous ruling that the electric car maker must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package. The judge denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. All told, the S&P 500 rose 2.73 points to 6,049.88. The Dow fell 76.47 to 44,705.53, and the Nasdaq composite gained 76.96 to 19,480.91. In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a report showed U.S. employers were advertising slightly more job openings at the end of October than a month earlier. Continued strength there would raise optimism that the economy could remain out of a recession that many investors had earlier worried was inevitable. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23% from 4.20% from late Monday. Yields have seesawed since Election Day amid worries that Trump’s preferences for lower tax rates and bigger tariffs could spur higher inflation along with economic growth. But traders are still confident the Federal Reserve will cut its main interest rate again at its next meeting in two weeks. They’re betting on a nearly three-in-four chance of that, according to data from CME Group. Lower rates can give the economy more juice, but they can also give inflation more fuel. The key report this week that could guide the Fed’s next move will arrive on Friday. It’s the monthly jobs report , which will show how many workers U.S. employers hired and fired during November. It could be difficult to parse given how much storms and strikes distorted figures in October. Based on trading in the options market, Friday’s jobs report appears to be the biggest potential market mover until the Fed announces its next decision on interest rates Dec. 18, according to strategists at Barclays Capital. In financial markets abroad, the value of South Korea’s currency fell 1.1% against the U.S. dollar following a frenetic night where President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law and then later said he’d lift it after lawmakers voted to reject military rule. Stocks of Korean companies that trade in the United States also fell, including a 1.6% drop for SK Telecom. Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 1.9% to help lead global markets. Some analysts think Japanese stocks could end up benefiting from Trump’s threats to raise tariffs , including for goods coming from China . Trade relations between the U.S. and China took another step backward after China said it is banning exports to the U.S. of gallium, germanium, antimony and other key high-tech materials with potential military applications. The counterpunch came swiftly after the U.S. Commerce Department expanded the list of Chinese technology companies subject to export controls to include many that make equipment used to make computer chips, chipmaking tools and software. The 140 companies newly included in the so-called “entity list” are nearly all based in China. In China, stock indexes rose 1% in Hong Kong and 0.4% in Shanghai amid unconfirmed reports that Chinese leaders would meet next week to discuss planning for the coming year. Investors are hoping it may bring fresh stimulus to help spur growth in the world’s second-largest economy. In France, the CAC 40 rose 0.3% amid continued worries about politics in Paris , where the government is battling over the budget. AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.The Bournemouth town centre branch in Old Christchurch Road will close its doors for the last time on Saturday, January 18, staff have said. There is currently a closing down sale with most stock at 50 per cent off. However, as of Saturday afternoon, most shelves were being emptied quickly. WHSmith has ignored repeated questions about why it has decided to close the Bournemouth town centre shop. Representatives from the business have previously been tight-lipped about its closure and have yet to confirm it is closing despite signage outside saying it is. It will be the second branch to close in recent months, after the Boscombe branch in Christchurch Road closed in the summer. And on February 1, WHSmith in Wimborne Road, Winton, will also close down. WHSmith has ignored questions from the Echo about Winton’s closure, too. In November, Carl Cowling, chief executive of WHSmith, said the group will face a £7 million cost impact from the Budget’s move to hike national insurance contributions. He added that next year’s extra cost would come on top of a £13 million increase in its wage bill due to the planned rise in the minimum wage also announced in the Budget. WHSmith has also said that as it looks to grow its travel shops (those based in airports and railway stations), the high street division will become a smaller part of the group. The high street business now accounts for around 15 per cent of annual group trading profit, it confirmed. Earnings remained flat at £32 million in its traditional high street business despite a two per cent drop in like-for-like sales thanks to cost-saving efforts. The company added it has around 470 store leases due for renewal over the next three years, including 100 where it is in active negotiations with the landlord. Mr Cowling said while the group “can never rule anything out” in terms of possible price rises, he added: “It would be my intention not to.”

Growing up, I often heard the expression, "Pakistan stands at a crossroads" - a sentiment that remains as relevant today as ever. The need for harmony and justice has never been more pressing. Perhaps this time, the tipping point is in sight, offering us an opportunity to live by the principle of knowing one another across divisions before it's too late. The Quran reminds us: "O humankind! We have made you... into nations and tribes, so that you may get to know one another..." (Q. 49:13). While none of us chose our place or time in Pakistan's geography, we do choose how we use our position and influence. The events of my life, from my naive childhood to my reflections in twilight years, reveal a recurring pattern: crises born of misrule, selective or absent accountability, and sustained by fabricated narratives. I still remember the air raid sirens piercing the night during the 1965 war. As a child, I didn't understand what was happening, but I understood fear. My mother struggled to console me, often with the help of neighbours, while my grandmother turned to prayer, fearing for my uncle's life at the front lines. These memories were my earliest lessons in the insecurity of life. The years that followed only deepened this insecurity. I was yet to be born when Ayub Khan declared Martial Law, subverting the judiciary to legitimise his rule under the infamous Doctrine of Necessity. Later, he denied Fatima Jinnah, our Madar-e-Millat, her electoral victory. This precedent, set in Ayub's time, paved the way for decades of engineered democracy, socio-political-economic alienation of the masses, and indifference to grievances that bred micro-aggressions - issues that haunt Pakistan to this day. The 1970s brought even greater contradictions. Ayub handed power to Yahya Khan. Mujib's Awami League secured a clear electoral majority but was denied power. Protests erupted, turning into an insurgency in East Pakistan, while West Pakistan celebrated with songs like Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan. The government blamed Bengalis for the unrest, disregarding their sacrifices in the creation of Pakistan and the injustices they endured. Radio Pakistan spun tales of triumph, but elders turned to the BBC for the truth. Yahya's hedonism and Bhutto's contempt for Mujib's demands only deepened the divide. The fall of Dhaka in December 1971 was catastrophic: 93,000 soldiers became prisoners of war, and Pakistan suffered a permanent fracture. Elders criticised the egos of Yahya, Bhutto and Mujib, but no meaningful reckoning followed. Bhutto rose from the ashes of a divided nation, promising Islamic socialism but delivering authoritarianism. His infamous remark, Maien nahee yeh kursi mazboot hay (It's not me, but the chair that's strong), became a tragic epitaph after his ouster and execution by Zia-ul-Haq, following a trial the Supreme Court has recently acknowledged as compromised. As a college student, I witnessed firsthand the clashes between Bhutto's NSF and the IJT, an ideological battleground for political dominance. Zia's ban on student politics silenced this chaos but left a void in leadership development, replaced by dynasties and military influence. His promised 90-day transition to democracy stretched into Islamisation under Martial Law. What followed was a cycle of alternating governments of PPP and PML-N blaming each other for misrule, Musharraf's coup ending in disgrace, and Imran Khan's rise as a saviour yielding disappointment. Today, former rivals PPP and PML-N govern in a coalition supported by the military that once orchestrated their downfalls. Our political and military leaders come to power with saviour complexes. The unanswered question remains: How have they left Pakistan so dysfunctional? This is evident in dismal global rankings: corruption (133rd), rule of law (129th), political transformation (99th), governance (122nd) and passport strength (107th). With 84% of people living on less than $6.85 or Rs1,078 per day, the Human Development Index stands at a bleak 116. These statistics mirror a country caught in an unyielding cycle of power preservation, misrule, arbitrary accountability and lost potential. Our response to grievances has often been suppression rather than solutions, breeding insurgencies and resistance movements. The Baloch revolt, PNA against Bhutto, MRD against Zia, PDM against Imran, ethnic movements like MQM, Jeay Sindh and PTM, and the emergence of militant groups like TTP and BLA remain active. The turmoil in the country continues. As I reflect on the major events, I wonder: was there no other way? Bhutto hanged; Junejo, Nawaz and Benazir governments sacked; Benazir and Nawaz exiled; Musharraf ventured into Kargil and was then exiled; Altaf was exiled; JM Sayed died as a frustrated founding politician; Bugti was killed; Benazir was assassinated; and now Imran is in jail facing shallow, possibly treasonous charges. Once again, I witness soldiers and misguided civilians die in conflicts. Though all are strangers to me, their lost lives haunt me. The questions that plagued me during the 1971 war remain: When does patriotism demand questioning authority rather than blind allegiance? Why would the present setup yield a different outcome when predecessors have said and done the same? Will the judiciary take up the electoral fraud case - not for Imran's sake but for the citizens' right to vote? The sirens of crisis continue to sound, and we must respond with wisdom. My humble appeal is to Punjab and its intelligentsia because providence has placed them in a uniquely advantageous position, dominating the country's institutions: 173 out of 336 legislative seats, 15 of 18 ministers in the executive, 26 of 38 federal bureaucrats, 75% of the military, and 8 of 16 Supreme Court justices. This influence carries a profound responsibility: to lead the nation toward harmony, equity and justice, and to fulfil the vision of Pakistan's founders. It would be unjust not to acknowledge Punjab's leading sacrifices, especially the precious lives of its sons defending Pakistan's sovereignty. Punjab can lead too in nation's affairs by enabling a Platform for Reforms, starting with a "National Dialogue on Amnesty" to dissolve unrest and foster harmony among all disgruntled parties. It must lead fairness, transparency, protection of citizens' rights, merit-based institutional reforms and inclusive economic policies. The potential for real change rests with Punjab. Pakistan doesn't need dominance from its most powerful province - it needs leadership. COMMENTS Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. For more information, please see ourFirpo has been the unquestioned first choice at left-back for Leeds over the past few years and has been in fine form this season, registering three assists in 13 Championship appearances. However, the former Barcelona man’s contract at Elland Road is due to expire at the end of this season, with no agreement yet found between player and club. Whether in the Championship or back in the Premier League, the Whites would have a hard time replacing Firpo’s quality and must take great care with their next move. Firpo recently by openly admitting he ‘has options’ away from Leeds United — who currently sit top of the Championship table after 16 games. Svensson is highly regarded in both Denmark and his native Sweden. The 22-year-old has already made his senior national team debut, while for Nordsjaelland, he’s played 151 times across all competitions over the past four-and-a-half seasons, registering eight goals and 20 assists. Svensson’s form is understood to have , who have reportedly had scouts keeping a close eye on his recent matches. With Leeds now joining the list of potential suitors, Svensson has been questioned about his future at the club and being linked to such big clubs. “I have not heard anything about it and it is not my focus now,” the defender said recently (via ). My full focus now is what I do here in Nordsjaelland – so no, I don’t know anything about that.”

There are few clearer signs of the destructive power that Hurricane Beryl unleashed on Barbados in July than the scene at the temporary boatyard in the capital, Bridgetown. Scores of mangled and cracked vessels sit on stacks, gaping holes in their hulls, their rudders snapped off and cabin windows broken. Yet these were the lucky ones. At least they can be repaired and put back out to sea. Many others sank, taking entire family incomes with them. When Beryl lashed Barbados, the island's fishing fleet was devastated in a matter of hours. About 75% of the active fleet was damaged, with 88 boats totally destroyed. Charles Carter, who owns a blue-and-black fishing vessel called Joyce, was among those affected. "It's been real bad, I can tell you. I had to change both sides of the hull, up to the waterline," he says, pointing at the now pristine boat in front of us. It has taken months of restoration and thousands of dollars to get it back to this point, during which time Charles has barely been able to fish. "That's my living, my livelihood, fishing is all I do," he says. "The fishing industry is mash up," echoes his friend, Captain Euride. "We're just trying to get back the pieces." Now, six months after the storm, there are signs of calmer waters. On a warm Saturday, several repaired vessels were put back into the ocean with the help of a crane, a trailer and some government support. Seeing Joyce back on the water is a welcome sight for all fishermen in Barbados. But Barbadians are acutely aware that climate change means more active and powerful Atlantic hurricane seasons - and it may be just another year or two before the fishing industry is struck again. Beryl, for example, was the earliest-forming Category 5 storm on record. Few understand the extent of the problem better than the island's Chief Fisheries Officer, Dr Shelly Ann Cox. "Our captains have been reporting that sea conditions have changed," she explains. "Higher swells, sea surface temperatures are much warmer and they're having difficulty getting flying fish now at the beginning of our pelagic season." The flying fish is a national symbol in Barbados and a key part of the island's cuisine. But climate change has been harming the stocks for years. At the Oistins Fish Market in Bridgetown, flying fish are still available, along with marlin, mahi-mahi and tuna, though only a handful of stalls are open. At one of them, Cornelius Carrington, from the Freedom Fish House. fillets a kingfish with the speed and dexterity of a man who has spent many years with a fish knife in his hands. "Beryl was like a surprise attack, like an ambush," says Cornelius, in a deep baritone voice, over the market's chatter, reggae and thwack of cleavers on chopping boards. Cornelius lost one of his two boats in Hurricane Beryl. "It's the first time a hurricane has come from the south like that, normally storms hit us from the north," he said. Although his second boat allowed him to stay afloat financially, Cornelius thinks the hand of climate change is increasingly present in the fishermen's fate. "Right now, everything has changed. The tides are changing, the weather is changing, the temperature of the sea, the whole pattern has changed." The effects are also being felt in the tourism industry, he says, with hotels and restaurants struggling to find enough fish to meet demand each month. For Dr Shelly Ann Cox, public education is key and, she says, the message is getting through. "Perhaps because we are an island and we're so connected to the water, people in Barbados can speak well on the impact on climate change and what that means for our country," she says. "I think if you speak to children as well, they're very knowledgeable about the topic." To see for myself, I visited a secondary school – Harrison College – as a member of a local NGO, the Caribbean Youth Environmental Network (CYEN), talked to members of the school's Environmental Club about climate change. The CYEN representative, Sheldon Marshall, is an energy expert who quizzed the pupils about greenhouse gases and the steps they could take at home to help reduce carbon emissions on the island. "How can you, as young people in Barbados, help make a difference on climate change?" he asked them. Following an engaging and lively debate, I asked the pupils how they felt about Barbados being on the front line of global climate change, despite having only a small carbon footprint itself. "Personally, I take a very pessimistic view," said 17-year-old Isabella Fredricks. "We are a very small country. No matter how hard we try to change, if the big countries – the main producers of pollution like America, India and China – don't make a change, everything we do is going to be pointless." Her classmate, Tenusha Ramsham, is slightly more optimistic. "I think that all great big leaps in history were made when people collaborated and innovated," she argues. "I don't think we should be completely disheartened because research, innovation, creating technology and education will ultimately lead to the future that we want." "I feel if we can communicate to the global superpowers the pain that we feel seeing this happen to our environment," adds 16-year-old Adrielle Baird, "then it would help them to understand and help us collaborate to find ways to fix the issues that we're seeing." For the island's young people, their very futures are at stake. Rising sea levels now pose an existential threat to the small islands of the Caribbean. It is a point on which the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has become a global advocate for change – urging greater action over an impending climate catastrophe in her speech at COP29 and calling for economic compensation from the world's industrialised nations. On its shores and in its seas, it feels like Barbados is under siege - dealing with issues from coral bleaching to coastal erosion. While the impetus for action comes from the island's youth, it is the older generations who have borne witness as the changes unfold. Steven Bourne has fished the waters around Barbados his whole life and lost two boats in Hurricane Beryl. As we look out at the coastline from a dilapidated beach-hut bar, he says the island's sands have shifted before his very eyes. "It's an attack from the elements. You see it taking the beaches away, but years ago you'd be sitting here, and you could see the water's edge coming upon the sand. Now you can't because the sand's built up so much." By coincidence, in the same bar where I chatted to Steven was Home Affairs Minister Wilfred Abrahams, who has responsibility for national disaster management. I put it to him that it must be a a difficult time for disaster management in the Caribbean. "The whole landscape has changed entirely," he replied. "Once upon a time, it was rare to get a Category Five hurricane in any year. Now we're getting them every year. So the intensity and the frequency are cause for concern." Even the duration of the hurricane season has changed, he says. "We used to have a rhyme that went: June, too soon; July, standby; October, all over," he tells me. Extreme weather events like Beryl have rendered such an idea obsolete. "What we can expect has changed, what we've prepared for our whole lives and what our culture is built around has changed," he adds. Fisherman Steven Bourne had hoped to retire before Beryl. Now, he says, he and the rest of the islanders have no choice but to keep going. "Being afraid or anything like that don't make no sense. Because there's nowhere for we to go. We love this rock. And we will always be on this rock."Former U.S. presidents joined world leaders and others in mourning former President Jimmy Carter after his death Sunday at age 100, recalling him as a humble humanitarian and global statesman who fought for peace and democracy during his four years in the White House and in his long and active postpresidency. As news of Carter’s death at his home in Plains, Georgia, spread across the world, others who have occupied the Oval Office paid tribute to his life, saying he had been guided by his Christian faith and his dedication to charity and kindness. They remembered him not only for accomplishments in office but for his work through The Carter Center, which he and his wife, Rosalynn, founded after his presidency to promote peace, fight disease and combat social inequality. President Joe Biden, who was a first-term senator from Delaware when Carter was elected president in 1976, called Carter a “dear friend” who “saved, lifted, and changed the lives of people all across the globe.” “He worked to eradicate disease, forge peace, advance civil rights and human rights, promote free and fair elections, house the homeless, and always advocate for the least among us,” Biden said in a statement. He added that young Americans and “anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning” should look to Jimmy Carter. Former President Bill Clinton, who had a complicated relationship with Carter but seemed to cement his friendship with him when he awarded the Carters the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1999, said in a statement that Jimmy Carter was a leader “guided by faith” who “worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world.” Clinton applauded Carter for reaching a peace deal between Egypt and Israel, and for his advancement of environmental protections. He also praised Carter for his charitable works, including as a volunteer for more than 30 years for Habitat for Humanity, which builds affordable housing. Even as a frail figure in his later years, Carter swung a hammer and wielded a drill on the group’s homebuilding projects, solidifying his image as a man who put his beliefs into action. Carter Dignified the Presidential Office: Bush Former President George W. Bush mentioned this work in a statement Sunday, noting that “his efforts to leave behind a better world didn’t end with the presidency.” Bush said Carter “was a man of deeply held convictions” and “dignified” the presidential office. Former President Barack Obama recalled Carter not only for his accomplishments in diplomacy and domestic affairs but for his fundamental integrity, respect and compassion. “Whenever I had a chance to spend time with President Carter, it was clear that he didn’t just profess these values,” Obama said in a post on the social platform Medium. “He embodied them. And in doing so, he taught all of us what it means to live a life of grace, dignity, justice and service.” Obama said hundreds of people would come to hear Carter speak on the occasional Sunday morning at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains. While many came to hear an accomplished former president preach, Obama said many showed up because of “President Carter’s decency.” President-elect Donald Trump noted the “enormous responsibility” that American presidents carry and said it was a burden that only the members of the “very exclusive club” of former presidents could relate to. “The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform. “For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude.” In October, Trump was the only living president or former president who did not contribute a video message to Carter for his 100th birthday. Instead, on a campaign stop in Wisconsin, Trump said Carter was happy because his presidency was successful compared with that of Biden, whom Trump deemed “the worst.” Trump and other members of the “exclusive club” that is the presidency will have a chance to gather early in the new year, when Carter’s funeral is expected to take place. This article originally appeared in .

The Philippine Business Bank (PBB) is seeking a private equity partner to help boost its financial technology capabilities and move it closer toward clinching a universal banking license. Rolando Avante, PBB president and CEO, said in a recent briefing that while they were only around P300 million short of the P20-billion minimum capital required for the license, they still needed to expand their offerings. This includes establishing an online banking system, Avante said. “We have met some interested parties ... we don’t need only the money because in a year or two, we will be there,” the president said. “Private equities are engaged in a lot of things, so that’s what we’re looking at.” READ: PBB 9-month profit surges to record P1.8B A private equity fund’s investment is often seen as a way to increase a company’s value, particularly through capital infusion. In PBB’s case, Avante explained that they wanted a private equity partner that could help beef up their fintech and information technology capabilities, thus allowing them to offer more services. The banking business of Zest-O Group founder Alfredo Yao is also set to move its head office from Caloocan City to Makati City in preparation for its application, as this would make PBB more accessible to clients. “We don’t want to be a unibank by name. Obviously, when you become a unibank ... it’s because your capability is there,” Avante said. “On the service side, we’re quite there, but we’re still putting up other products,” he added. A universal banking license will widen PBB’s services to include investment banking, insurance and trust services, among others. Such a license also gives a bank the power to fully own thrift and rural banks. Data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) show that there are currently 22 licensed universal banks in the country, including most of the publicly listed banks. Avante likewise noted that PBB still had no set timeline as to when they planned to secure a universal banking license, adding that they were going to meet with the BSP to discuss “where we will be moving the bank.” In the first nine months of the year, PBB booked record-high earnings as its loan portfolio expanded amid a shift toward consumer banking. Its net income during the period surged by 57 percent to P1.8 billion, which is equivalent to PBB’s full-year 2023 earnings. Core income was at P2.4 billion, up by 8.7 percent. Subscribe to our daily newsletter By providing an email address. I agree to the Terms of Use and acknowledge that I have read the Privacy Policy . Meanwhile, net interest income jumped by 16 percent to P7.83 billion as the bank favored the high-yielding consumer business and continued supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Chuck Woolery, former host of 'Wheel of Fortune' and more, diesSwiss Olympic snowboarder Sophie Hediger dies in avalanche, aged 26BEIJING: US President-elect Donald Trump's plan to overhaul the government with a new department headed by tech billionaire Elon Musk and Indian-origin entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy will be the biggest threat for China as it has to compete with far more efficient US political system, a policy advisor to the Chinese government said. China's biggest risk during Donald Trump's 2.0 would be US government overhauls driven by Musk and Ramaswamy, according to Zheng Yongnian, China's top academic and policy advisor to Beijing. "A more efficient US political system would put huge pressure on China’s current system,” Zheng, dean of the School of Public Policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Shenzhen campus, said while speaking at Baichuan Forum hosted by the Institute for International Affairs (IIA) on Saturday. “Of course, the pressure is not exclusive to China but also others, especially Europe,” he said. Trump named Musk and Ramaswamy to lead a new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The duo has already planned to scrap “thousands of regulations” and reduce the size of the government workforce. Zhena said, “In the medium to long term, the greatest pressure on China may come from changes within the US.” If Trump succeeds in his efforts to overhaul the government, the US would “develop a new, more competitive system”, Zheng said, calling it a form of “state capitalism with American characteristics”. “I think we should not underestimate the institutional reforms prioritised by figures like Musk,” he warned, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Sunday. China is gearing up for Trump’s second term, beginning on January 20 next year, on several fronts, including his threat to impose a 60 per cent increase of tariffs on its over USD 427 billion annual exports to the US. Trump, who acted tough on China during his previous term, is expected to reinforce measures against Beijing on various global fronts, including Taiwan and the South China Sea. China asserts Taiwan as part of its mainland and claims ownership over most of the South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have counterclaims over the area. To counter tough tariff increases by the incoming Trump administration in the US, China announced new policy measures on Thursday to back its export sector against “unreasonable foreign trade restrictions” and to create a “good environment” for its exports. At the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Peru and the 20 summit in Brazil last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping during his meetings with a host of world leaders reaffirmed China’s commitment to promote “high-standard opening up” for investment and trade. As part of new measures to open up, China on Friday added nine more countries, including Japan to its unilateral visa-free entry scheme, taking the total to 38. Zhena said that to counter the US internal changes China should expand opening up countermeasures. Zheng said Trump may damage bilateral ties with tariffs but “he does not want to go to war with China”. Trump's “tariff stick” against China under his “America First” policy approach would not only “maximally” damage bilateral relations but also sabotage the international trade system, he added. However, geopolitics is more of a “tool” for Trump, according to Zheng, even though he expects him to continue to ramp up tensions around the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. “He does not want to go to war with China,” Zheng said, keeping in view China’s rapidly growing defence capabilities. “Fully tapping into internal growth potential is something we must do” in response to changes in the global environment, Zheng said. Zheng expects China to speed up institutional reform to support the domestic market under its “dual circulation” strategy, which also seeks to reduce reliance on the West, as well as set up a unified national market. To counter Trump's policies, Zheng has called for extending the unilateral openness by China to include US capital and citizens. “In this way, those truly isolated” would be the hardliners, Cold War advocates and anti-China factions in the US, he said. “Although competition between China and the US is inevitable, we don’t have to be too afraid. But the core of the competition, we have to realise, is who is more open than whom,” he said. “The ultimate winner will undoubtedly be (the side that is) more open,” he added. “I believe we will certainly outperform the US,” he said.

NEW YORK , Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Council for Autism Service Providers (CASP) honored ABA Centers, the nation's fastest growing autism care provider, by partnering to ring the iconic Closing Bell at the New York Stock Exchange together. Lorri Unumb , Chief Executive Officer of CASP; Christopher Barnett , Founder & Chairman of ABA Centers; and his daughter, Madison Mulvey , were the official bell ringers during the 1 pm ceremony, marking an early close of the markets in preparation for the upcoming Christmas holiday. ABA Centers was founded as a testament to a father's love for his daughter, sparked from Mr. Barnett's personal experience attempting to acquire a diagnosis and then quality care for his own child, Ms. Mulvey, who spent years dealing with a misdiagnosis and missing out on the proper treatment that she desperately needed. What Mr. Barnett experienced as the parent of a child on the spectrum – the inadequacies, the lack of services available, and the long wait lists within the autism care system – were simply unacceptable. As a longtime healthcare entrepreneur, Mr. Barnett recognized that he already harnessed the infrastructure to effectuate real change within the autism care industry, so he set out to create a mission-driven organization, where every employee throughout the corporate and clinical teams is dedicated to making a lasting impact in the lives of autistic children and their families. "I hope that the sound waves of this bell ringing transcend the trading floor and serve as a rally call for quick, compassionate, and top quality autism care across our country," remarked Mr. Barnett. "Seeing CASP and ABA Centers on the New York Stock Exchange podium should encourage other decision makers and deal makers alike to find ways in which they can positively impact the autism care industry further because there are millions of children currently languishing on wait lists and missing out on the autism care that they deserve during the most crucial times." In 2024, ABA Centers achieved the following monumental milestones, which served to amplify its commitment to providing every kid in the country with world class autism care: "For mission-driven organizations like CASP and ABA Centers, this bell ringing ceremony offers a platform to amplify our message and highlight the importance of autism care, as well as the challenges faced by the autism community, to a robust and influential audience," stated Mrs. Unumb. Mrs. Unumb and Mr. Barnett were joined on the bell ringing podium by the C-suite of ABA Centers: Jason Barker ; Joseph Heilner ; Kristy Johnson ; Quatiba Davis; Michael Holohan ; Michael Holzum ; Michael Holzum, Jr. ; and Ted Bender ; members of The Christopher M. Barnett Family Foundation: Julie Barnett , Kaitlyn Mulvey , Madison Mulvey , and Kennedy Mulvey ; and Dan Unumb of the Autism Legal Resource Center. About ABA Centers ABA Centers provides applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy services to children with autism spectrum disorder through a play-based approach rooted in positive reinforcement. The company was designed to disrupt the autism care industry by demolishing wait times traditionally experienced by those in search of a diagnosis or treatment. Its strategically designed behavioral care centers offer the greatest opportunity for growth to young clients and their families. In-home and in-school therapy services are also available to deliver the most impactful continuum of care and to best meet each client's specific needs. In 2024, ABA Centers was named the No. 5 fastest growing private company in America on the Inc. 5000. More information can be found at www.abacenters.com . About the Council of Autism Service Providers Founded in 2016, the Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP) is a non-profit trade association of over 380 autism service provider organizations from all 50 states and multiple countries. It supports members by cultivating, sharing, and advocating for best practices in autism services. From developing clinical practice guidelines for applied behavior analysis to educating legislators about good policy, CASP works every day to ensure individuals with autism receive quality care. Learn more at www.CASProviders.org . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-council-of-autism-service-providers-and-aba-centers-partner-to-ring-closing-bell-at-the-new-york-stock-exchange-302337682.html SOURCE ABA CentersAFL Don't miss out on the headlines from AFL. Followed categories will be added to My News. Essendon’s new first-round draftee Isaac Kako has paid tribute to the remarkable sacrifices of his family to give him and his siblings a better life after his father left Iraq in 1999 after serving a decade in the Iraqi army. Kako is the only player of Iraqi heritage in the AFL as the league encourages clubs to put time and effort into a more diverse competition more representative of Australia’s multicultural life. The NGA academy player has been linked to Essendon’s academy since he was 13 and was born in Australia after parents Laith and Samiya left Iraq along with his two older sisters Lisa and Ledia. The 18-year-old is the youngest of five siblings with older brothers Elliot 33 and Bronel 23, and is determined to celebrate his heritage as an inspiration for the Iraqi juniors who typically follow friends into soccer instead of AFL football. Kako was the first pick by Essendon in the 2024 draft. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images Laith was able to escape Iraq ahead of the second conflict with America in a country that endured the 1991 Gulf War then the US invasion in 2003 that saw the Iraqi Army disbanded only months later. “Dad was in the Iraqi army for ten years and after the war finished he left to try to find a better life and ended up here. They went through a few countries to try to get here, they applied to a few others like Canada and America and then they got here,” Kako told the Herald Sun. “I could have been an NFL running back! Everything they have done has pushed me to work harder and not waste the better life they gave me. (Dad’s background) is pretty unique but we try not too speak too much about it, it’s not amazing being in a war. He runs a business with my brother now sanding and finishing floorboards. “It is a rarity (to be playing football from an Iraqi background.) Most of my mates play soccer and I genuinely know of no other footy players even locally. Hopefully I can be a role model to other kids so they can pick up a Sherrin. I feel like (more diversity in the AFL) is really important. The game has definitely become more diverse in recent years so hopefully it keeps going. It’s an amazing game and everyone deserves to play it.” Kako said his links to the Essendon academy helped drive him as he played football at local club Northern Saints, Coates League side Calder Cannons and school football at Parade College. But when the AFL ruled mid-year that Victorian clubs could match bids for NGA players no matter how early they went in the draft it meant he was guaranteed of playing for Essendon given his exceptional talent. The club eventually matched a Richmond bid for him at pick 13 after trading out its future first-rounder for the Demons 2025 first-round pick but the mid-season ruling gave him certainty. The Kako family at the draft. Picture: Dylan Burns/AFL Photos via Getty Images “I think my brother sent (the ruling) to me and to be honest over the moon,” he said of the late July rule change. “The chance of me going out of state was pretty scary, and to get drafted to the team I grew up barracking for is amazing. “It’s a really tight knit family so I am really happy I got to stay here. My mum was definitely over the moon. She was loving it. So was everyone else. My brothers and dad were really happy I got to stay home. “I feel like every draftee’s goal is to play as early as possible so I will do everything I can to push my name forward for round 1 and I can’t wait to put in the work.” More Coverage Winners and losers: Every club’s draft haul rated Chris Cavanagh, Dan Batten, Tim Michell, Eliza Reilly and Matt Turner Join the conversation Add your comment to this story To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout More related stories AFL Rookie draft to retirement: Saints’ bizarre call leaves fans confused Brad Crouch was St Kilda’s only pick in last week’s rookie draft, yet his AFL career is all but over. So why did the Saints make the move that left fans scratching their heads? Read more AFL News The Bevo rule? AFL rethinks post-game media access After the loss to Sydney last year, Bulldogs coach Luke Beveridge used the Herald Sun’s Ed Bourke to send a message. Now, with the media policy again in the spotlight, change could be coming. Read more

 

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2025-01-11
I am obviously gutted for the boys because they put in a hell of a shift, a big improvement from Saturday and we have just played the best team, or one of the best teams in the league. They have quality everywhere, they are strong, they don't give up, they kept going and going and going. I don't think we got the rub of the green tonight, from the ref. I am not blaming him and I will be careful what I say, but we were told there was 45 seconds added on. I don't know why because there is only 30 seconds added on for a substitution. They score on 93min and 54 seconds, they'll come out with the excuse now of it being a minimum of three minutes, but it was way over. It was three minutes added. It's really frustrating because they are a team that don't need any extra help, so I am a bit disappointed it's like that. If we'd been the ones to score late and got the draw, it would have felt like a win, so I am a little bit frustrated and annoyed, but I am proud of my players tonight because they have just gone against a team with a budget three times ours, a big club going for promotion, slinging everything at it and they are littered with good players, so I am more than proud of my boys tonight. I thought Joe (Day) was brilliant, comfortable, mopping up everything he had to do. A lot of it was straight at him and it is a hell of a strike, but Ronan (Curtis) was playing for Portsmouth and he is a very, very good player. As much as I have mentioned the referee, we have to look at ourselves as well. We have missed a header, misjudged, then we have allowed him to cut in on his right foot, then we have left somebody who has a lot of quality, with a bit too much space on the edge of the box. Things we can learn from are that we took a goal kick on 93 minutes and 36 seconds I think it was, can we just boot it over the stand? Little things like that because that is 12 points now we've thrown away and that would make us second, or third on goal difference. You can see where my frustration is. Of course, but we have won our fair share with late goals as well. I have to give Port Vale some credit as well because they didn't stop. Even though they didn't hit the target much, they kept knocking on the door. We have to be more savvy and switched on, to stop that happening, giving them an opportunity to get a shot off in those kind of timings of the game. I always look at myself and the team first and they did get a helping hand tonight. No because I don't think they are all going at the end of games. It's nothing to do with fitness, you can see them all running non-stop, the boys are giving their all, we have won a few late on too. We are making changes, bringing on experience with Tom Pett and Matty Taylor, but Levi Laing has been out for a while, so it is what it is. We can't bring the likes of Ronan Curtis on, we can't afford those luxuries, which makes me even prouder of the players we have got because they are really giving everything and doing what they can. It was chalk and cheese. It winds me up a bit because I know the importance of the finances for the football club and we didn't turn up on Saturday, we know that. We lost the game and as fate would have it, they go and draw Man City away. I did text Karl Robinson last night and said I hope it's 16-0! We spoke after the game and I wished him luck of course because he's one of the good lads. I can have that kind of message with him. But the draw for the lower league games and I've been on the other end of it when we've had a good draw and it's made the club a lot of money, so to see teams like Bromley going to Newcastle, Morecambe going to Chelsea, Accrington going to Liverpool, it's been a good draw in terms of the League Two clubs. I am not one of these who is bitter and I am glad that they have something we didn't end up achieving. Yes and I have said it on Saturday, when we do come off it and we are not at our best, we tend to get beaten. We could have played better tonight, to be honest, but our energy was there, determination, we won a lot of duels. I saw a quote about having all the tactics and technique and go through everything as a manager, but if you don't win your individual duels, your first and second balls, that all goes out of the window. That's at the top of the game and it is no different at our level. I don't care where they are from, or if it hits him on the back of the head and went in because usually we could see that out when it gets so late. It's just a miskick from them, that goes over the top and I don't think he actually meant to do that. It was frustrating and it's gone against us, but they are a very strong team and would we have taken a point before? Possibly. I don't mean this to be disrespectful, but they are bringing in Ben Heneghan, who has played at Sheffield Wednesday and in the Championship and we are getting Ibra, who was on trial looking for a club. That's where we're at, two different ends of the spectrum. I have a lot of respect for the efforts the players are giving me. They are giving their all, they are a good group and I have to keep on top of them because they are learning the game. Stubbs was brilliant, Youngy (Luke Young), Liam Kinsella, Tom Bradbury had a good game I thought, Joe Day was quality and a calming influence, but you get that with experience because they know how to see out these games. The younger ones like Ethan (Archer) and Jordan (Thomas), in flashes they were dangerous and good, but they have a bit of a lapse, even Joel (Colwill) I thought was in and out of the game tonight. But they have definitely got bright futures and they are learning their trade so to speak to with us and I am sure they will go on and have very good careers, as long as they keep learning. I thought they were going to go 3-4-3 to be honest. They were more a 3-5-2, their rotations are good and their touch is good, so when the ball is going up to the strikers, they are linking it, which allows their wing-backs to push higher. They are a good team. I said to the players and I hope Darren doesn't take this the wrong way, but I don't think they are great at anything, but they are good at everything - that's Port Vale I would say. They are a well-oiled machine and whoever finishes above them will go up automatically. No, because it was one of those games. They have some injuries, but they are almost spoiled for choice. We have to carry on, dust ourselves down and I can't emphasise how proud I was of the players tonight. I do feel hard done by with the goal that has gone in, way over the added time. It is weeks more than months and there is no major structural damage to the ligaments. We will now have to see how quickly the swelling goes down and the bone bruising is pain free. I am glad we had a bit of good news on that because not only would he be a big miss, it would have killed us in January because when we are having to wheel and deal, another injury out that we can't replace because of the finances would really hurt us. I am trying my hardest and the players are trying their hardest not to get injured!m.jlbet.com

Dallewal’s fast enters 13th dayIs Technology Worthy of Our Faith?President-elect Donald Trump said he can't guarantee that his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won't raise prices for American consumers and he suggested once more that some political rivals and federal officials who pursued legal cases against him should be imprisoned. The president-elect, in a wide-ranging interview with NBC's “Meet the Press” that aired Sunday, also touched on monetary policy, immigration, abortion and health care, and U.S. involvement in Ukraine, Israel and elsewhere. Trump often mixed declarative statements with caveats, at one point cautioning “Things do change.” A look at some of the issues covered: Trump hems on whether trade penalties could raise prices Trump has threatened broad trade penalties, but said he didn’t believe economists' predictions that added costs on those imported goods for American companies would lead to higher domestic prices for consumers. He stopped short of a pledge that US households won't be paying more as they shop. “I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow,” Trump said, seeming to open the door to accepting the reality of how import levies typically work as goods reach the retail market. That's a different approach from Trump's typical speeches throughout the 2024 campaign when he framed his election as a sure way to curb inflation. In the interview, Trump defended tariffs generally, saying that tariffs are "going to make us rich.” He has pledged that, on his first day in office in January, he would impose 25% tariffs on all goods imported from Mexico and Canada unless those countries satisfactorily stop illegal immigration and the flow of illegal drugs such as fentanyl into the United States. He also has threatened tariffs on China to help force that country to crack down on fentanyl production. ”All I want to do is I want to have a level, fast, but fair playing field,” Trump said. Trump suggests retribution for his opponents while claiming no interest in vengeance. READ | Donald Trump's billionaire cabinet: Who are the big names apart from Elon Musk He offered conflicting statements on how he would approach the justice system after winning the election despite being convicted of 34 felonies in a New York state court and being indicted in other cases for his handling of national security secrets and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden. “Honestly, they should go to jail,” Trump said of members of Congress who investigated the Capitol riot by his supporters who wanted him to remain in power. The president-elect underscored his contention that he can use the justice system against others, including special prosecutor Jack Smith, who led the case on Trump’s role in the siege on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump confirmed his plan to pardon supporters who were convicted for their roles in the riot, saying he would take that action on his first day in office. As for the idea of revenge driving potential prosecutions, Trump said: “I have the absolute right. I’m the chief law enforcement officer, you do know that. I’m the president. But I’m not interested in that." At the same time, Trump singled out lawmakers on a special House committee who had investigated the insurrection, citing Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. “Cheney was behind it ... so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee,” Trump said. Asked specifically whether he would direct his administration to pursue cases, he said, “No,” and suggested he did not expect the FBI to quickly undertake investigations into his political enemies. But at another point, Trump said he would leave the matter up to Pam Bondi, his pick as attorney general. “I want her to do what she wants to do,” he said. Such threats, regardless of Trump's inconsistencies, have been taken seriously enough by many top Democrats that Biden is considering issuing blanket, preemptive pardons to protect key members of his outgoing administration. Trump did seemingly back off his campaign rhetoric calling for Biden to be investigated, saying, “I’m not looking to go back into the past.” Swift action on immigration is coming Trump repeatedly mentioned his promises to seal the U.S.-Mexico border and deport millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally through a mass deportation program. “I think you have to do it,” he said. He suggested he would try to use executive action to end “birthright” citizenship under which people born in the U.S. are considered citizens — although such protections are spelt out in the Constitution. Asked specifically about the future of people who were brought into the country illegally as children and have been shielded from deportation in recent years, Trump said, “I want to work something out,” indicating he might seek a solution with Congress. But Trump also said he does not “want to be breaking up families” of mixed legal status, “so the only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together and you have to send them all back.” Trump commits to NATO, with conditions, and waffles on Putin and Ukraine Long a critic of NATO members for not spending more on their defence, Trump said he “absolutely” would remain in the alliance “if they pay their bills.” Pressed on whether he would withdraw if he were dissatisfied with allies’ commitments, Trump said he wants the U.S. treated “fairly” on trade and defence. He waffled on a NATO priority of containing Russia and President Vladimir Putin. Trump suggested Ukraine should prepare for less U.S. aid in its defence against Putin’s invasion. “Possibly. Yeah, probably. Sure,” Trump said of reducing Ukraine's assistance from Washington. Separately, Trump has called for an immediate cease-fire. Asked about Putin, Trump said initially that he has not talked to the Russian leader since Election Day last month, but then hedged: “I haven’t spoken to him recently.” Trump said when pressed, adding that he did not want to “impede the negotiation.” READ | Trump claims Russia ‘was not interested in protecting’ Assad after Syrian prez flees, says it's Putin's ‘time to act’ Trump says Powell is safe at the Fed, but not Wray at the FBI The president-elect said he has no intention, at least for now, of asking Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to step down before Powell's term ends in 2028. During the campaign, Trump said presidents should have more say in Fed policy, including interest rates. Trump did not offer any job assurances for FBI Director Christopher Wray, whose term will end in 2027. Asked about Wray, Trump said: “Well, I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious” that if the Senate confirms Kash Patel as Trump's pick for FBI chief, then “he’s going to be taking somebody’s place, right? Somebody is the man that you’re talking about.” Trump is absolute about Social Security, not so much on abortion and health insurance Trump promised that the government efficiency effort led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will not threaten Social Security. “We're not touching Social Security, other than we make it more efficient,” he said. He added, “We're not raising ages or any of that stuff.” He was not so specific about abortion or his long-promised overhaul of the Affordable Care Act. On abortion, Trump continued his inconsistencies and said he would “probably” not move to restrict access to the abortion pills that now account for a majority of pregnancy terminations, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which supports abortion rights. But pressed on whether he would commit to that position, Trump replied, “Well, I commit. I mean, are -- things do -- things change. I think they change.” Reprising a line from his Sept. 10 debate against Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump again said he had “concepts” of a plan to substitute for the 2010 Affordable Care Act, which he called “lousy health care.” He added a promise that any Trump version would maintain insurance protections for Americans with preexisting health conditions. He did not explain how such a design would differ from the status quo or how he could deliver on his desire for “better healthcare for less money.”WASHINGTON — The House shut down Democrats' efforts Thursday to release the long-awaited ethics report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz, pushing the fate of any resolution to the yearslong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations into further uncertainty. Matt Gaetz talks before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate Nov. 14 in Palm Beach, Fla. The nearly party-line votes came after Democrats had been pressing for the findings to be published even though the Florida Republican left Congress and withdrew as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., was the sole Republican to support the effort. Most Republicans have argued that any congressional probe into Gaetz ended when he resigned from the House. Speaker Mike Johnson also requested that the committee not publish its report, saying it would be a terrible precedent to set. While ethics reports have previously been released after a member’s resignation, it is extremely rare. Shortly before the votes took place, Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., who introduced one of the bills to force the release, said that if Republicans reject the release, they will have “succeeded in sweeping credible allegations of sexual misconduct under the rug.” Gaetz has repeatedly denied the claims. Earlier Thursday, the Ethics panel met to discuss the Gaetz report but made no decision, saying in a short statement that the matter is still being discussed. It's unclear now whether the document will ever see the light of day as lawmakers have only a few weeks left before a new session of Congress begins. It's the culmination of weeks of pressure on the Ethics committee's five Republicans and five Democrats who mostly work in secret as they investigate allegations of misconduct against lawmakers. The status of the Gaetz investigation became an open question last month when he abruptly resigned from Congress after Trump's announcement that he wanted his ally in the Cabinet. It is standard practice for the committee to end investigations when members of Congress depart, but the circumstances surrounding Gaetz were unusual, given his potential role in the new administration. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., the committee chairman, said Wednesday that there is no longer the same urgency to release the report given that Gaetz has left Congress and stepped aside as Trump's choice to head the Justice Department. “I’ve been steadfast about that. He’s no longer a member. He is no longer going to be confirmed by the Senate because he withdrew his nomination to be the attorney general,” Guest said. The Gaetz report has also caused tensions between lawmakers on the bipartisan committee. Pennsylvania Rep. Susan Wild, the top Democrat on the panel, publicly admonished Guest last month for mischaracterizing a previous meeting to the press. Gaetz has denied any wrongdoing and said last year that the Justice Department’s separate investigation against him into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls ended without federal charges. His onetime political ally Joel Greenberg, a fellow Republican who served as the tax collector in Florida’s Seminole County, admitted as part of a plea deal with prosecutors in 2021 that he paid women and an underage girl to have sex with him and other men. The men were not identified in court documents when he pleaded guilty. Greenberg was sentenced in late 2022 to 11 years in prison. Among President-elect Donald Trump's picks are Susie Wiles for chief of staff, Susie Wiles, 67, was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 presidential campaign and its de facto manager. Trump to be secretary of state, making a former sharp critic his choice to be the new administration's top diplomat. Rubio, 53, is a noted hawk on China, Cuba and Iran, and was a finalist to be Trump's running mate on the Republican ticket last summer. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “He will be a strong Advocate for our Nation, a true friend to our Allies, and a fearless Warrior who will never back down to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in a statement. The announcement punctuates the hard pivot Rubio has made with Trump, whom the senator called a “con man" during his unsuccessful campaign for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Their relationship improved dramatically while Trump was in the White House. And as Trump campaigned for the presidency a third time, Rubio cheered his proposals. For instance, Rubio, who more than a decade ago helped craft immigration legislation that included a path to citizenship for people in the U.S. illegally, now supports Trump's plan to use the U.S. military for mass deportations. Pete Hegseth, 44, is a co-host of Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” and has been a contributor with the network since 2014, where he developed a friendship with Trump, who made regular appearances on the show. Hegseth lacks senior military or national security experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he would inherit the top job during a series of global crises — ranging from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the ongoing attacks in the Middle East by Iranian proxies to the push for a cease-fire between Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah and escalating worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea. Hegseth is also the author of “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” published earlier this year. Trump tapped Pam Bondi, 59, to be attorney general after U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew his name from consideration. She was Florida's first female attorney general, serving between 2011 and 2019. She also was on Trump’s legal team during his first impeachment trial in 2020. Considered a loyalist, she served as part of a Trump-allied outside group that helped lay the groundwork for his future administration called the America First Policy Institute. Bondi was among a group of Republicans who showed up to support Trump at his hush money criminal trial in New York that ended in May with a conviction on 34 felony counts. A fierce defender of Trump, she also frequently appears on Fox News and has been a critic of the criminal cases against him. Trump picked South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a well-known conservative who faced sharp criticism for telling a story in her memoir about shooting a rambunctious dog, to lead an agency crucial to the president-elect’s hardline immigration agenda. Noem used her two terms leading a tiny state to vault to a prominent position in Republican politics. South Dakota is usually a political afterthought. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, Noem did not order restrictions that other states had issued and instead declared her state “open for business.” Trump held a fireworks rally at Mount Rushmore in July 2020 in one of the first large gatherings of the pandemic. She takes over a department with a sprawling mission. In addition to key immigration agencies, the Department of Homeland Security oversees natural disaster response, the U.S. Secret Service, and Transportation Security Administration agents who work at airports. The governor of North Dakota, who was once little-known outside his state, Burgum is a former Republican presidential primary contender who endorsed Trump, and spent months traveling to drum up support for him, after dropping out of the race. Burgum was a serious contender to be Trump’s vice presidential choice this summer. The two-term governor was seen as a possible pick because of his executive experience and business savvy. Burgum also has close ties to deep-pocketed energy industry CEOs. Trump made the announcement about Burgum joining his incoming administration while addressing a gala at his Mar-a-Lago club, and said a formal statement would be coming the following day. In comments to reporters before Trump took the stage, Burgum said that, in recent years, the power grid is deteriorating in many parts of the country, which he said could raise national security concerns but also drive up prices enough to increase inflation. “There's just a sense of urgency, and a sense of understanding in the Trump administration,” Burgum said. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ran for president as a Democrat, than as an independent, and . He's the son of Democratic icon Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated during his own presidential campaign. The nomination of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services alarmed people who are concerned about . For example, he has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Scott Bessent, 62, is a former George Soros money manager and an advocate for deficit reduction. He's the founder of hedge fund Key Square Capital Management, after having worked on-and-off for Soros Fund Management since 1991. If confirmed by the Senate, he would be the nation’s first openly gay treasury secretary. He told Bloomberg in August that he decided to join Trump’s campaign in part to attack the mounting U.S. national debt. That would include slashing government programs and other spending. “This election cycle is the last chance for the U.S. to grow our way out of this mountain of debt without becoming a sort of European-style socialist democracy,” he said then. Oregon Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer narrowly lost her reelection bid this month, but received strong backing from union members in her district. As a potential labor secretary, she would oversee the Labor Department’s workforce, its budget and put forth priorities that impact workers’ wages, health and safety, ability to unionize, and employer’s rights to fire employers, among other responsibilities. Chavez-DeRemer is one of few House Republicans to endorse the “Protecting the Right to Organize” or PRO Act would allow more workers to conduct organizing campaigns and would add penalties for companies that violate workers’ rights. The act would also weaken “right-to-work” laws that allow employees in more than half the states to avoid participating in or paying dues to unions that represent workers at their places of employment. Scott Turner is a former NFL player and White House aide. He ran the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term in office. Trump, in a statement, credited Turner, the highest-ranking Black person he’s yet selected for his administration, with “helping to lead an Unprecedented Effort that Transformed our Country’s most distressed communities.” Sean Duffy is a former House member from Wisconsin who was one of Trump's most visible defenders on cable news. Duffy served in the House for nearly nine years, sitting on the Financial Services Committee and chairing the subcommittee on insurance and housing. He left Congress in 2019 for a TV career and has been the host of “The Bottom Line” on Fox Business. Before entering politics, Duffy was a reality TV star on MTV, where he met his wife, “Fox and Friends Weekend” co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy. They have nine children. A campaign donor and CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Write is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking — a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market. Wright also has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change. He said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.” The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. Wright also won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm. Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term. President-elect Donald Trump tapped billionaire professional wrestling mogul Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Education Department, tasked with overseeing an agency Trump promised to dismantle. McMahon led the Small Business Administration during Trump’s initial term from 2017 to 2019 and twice ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Connecticut. She’s seen as a relative unknown in education circles, though she expressed support for charter schools and school choice. She served on the Connecticut Board of Education for a year starting in 2009 and has spent years on the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. Brooke Rollins, who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in agricultural development, is a longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency. The 52-year-old is president and CEO of the America First Policy Institute, a group helping to lay the groundwork for a second Trump administration. She previously served as an aide to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and ran a think tank, the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Trump chose Howard Lutnick, head of brokerage and investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald and a cryptocurrency enthusiast, as his nominee for commerce secretary, a position in which he'd have a key role in carrying out Trump's plans to raise and enforce tariffs. Trump made the announcement Tuesday on his social media platform, Truth Social. Lutnick is a co-chair of Trump’s transition team, along with Linda McMahon, the former wrestling executive who previously led Trump’s Small Business Administration. Both are tasked with putting forward candidates for key roles in the next administration. The nomination would put Lutnick in charge of a sprawling Cabinet agency that is involved in funding new computer chip factories, imposing trade restrictions, releasing economic data and monitoring the weather. It is also a position in which connections to CEOs and the wider business community are crucial. Doug Collins is a former Republican congressman from Georgia who gained recognition for defending Trump during his first impeachment trial, which centered on U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump was impeached for urging Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden in 2019 during the Democratic presidential nomination, but he was acquitted by the Senate. Collins has also served in the armed forces himself and is currently a chaplain in the United States Air Force Reserve Command. "We must take care of our brave men and women in uniform, and Doug will be a great advocate for our Active Duty Servicemembers, Veterans, and Military Families to ensure they have the support they need," Trump said in a statement about nominating Collins to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs. Karoline Leavitt, 27, was Trump's campaign press secretary and currently a spokesperson for his transition. She would be the youngest White House press secretary in history. The White House press secretary typically serves as the public face of the administration and historically has held daily briefings for the press corps. Leavitt, a New Hampshire native, was a spokesperson for MAGA Inc., a super PAC supporting Trump, before joining his 2024 campaign. In 2022, winning a 10-way Republican primary before losing to Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas. Leavitt worked in the White House press office during Trump's first term before she became communications director for New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump's choice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence, keeping with the trend to stock his Cabinet with loyal personalities rather than veteran professionals in their requisite fields. Gabbard, 43, was a Democratic House member who unsuccessfully sought the party's 2020 presidential nomination before leaving the party in 2022. She endorsed Trump in August and campaigned often with him this fall. “I know Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our Intelligence Community,” Trump said in a statement. Gabbard, who has served in the Army National Guard for more than two decades, deploying to Iraq and Kuwait, would come to the role as somewhat of an outsider compared to her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 following several years in a number of top national security and intelligence positions. Trump has picked John Ratcliffe, a former Texas congressman who served as director of national intelligence during his first administration, to be director of the Central Intelligence Agency in his next. Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during the final year and a half of Trump's first term, leading the U.S. government's spy agencies during the coronavirus pandemic. “I look forward to John being the first person ever to serve in both of our Nation's highest Intelligence positions,” Trump said in a statement, calling him a “fearless fighter for the Constitutional Rights of all Americans” who would ensure “the Highest Levels of National Security, and PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.” Kash Patel spent several years as a Justice Department prosecutor before catching the Trump administration’s attention as a staffer on Capitol Hill who helped investigate the Russia probe. Patel called for dramatically reducing the agency’s footprint, a perspective that sets him apart from earlier directors who sought additional resources for the bureau. Though the Justice Department in 2021 during leak investigations, Patel said he intends to aggressively hunt down government officials who leak information to reporters. Trump has chosen former New York Rep. to serve as his pick to lead the . Zeldin does not appear to have any experience in environmental issues, but is a longtime supporter of the former president. The 44-year-old former U.S. House member from New York wrote on , “We will restore US energy dominance, revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs, and make the US the global leader of AI.” “We will do so while protecting access to clean air and water,” he added. During his campaign, Trump often attacked the Biden administration's promotion of electric vehicles, and incorrectly referring to a tax credit for EV purchases as a government mandate. Trump also often told his audiences during the campaign his administration would “Drill, baby, drill,” referring to his support for expanded petroleum exploration. In a statement, Trump said Zeldin “will ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses, while at the same time maintaining the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” Trump has named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband. Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC’s general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission. Carr made past appearances on “Fox News Channel," including when he decried Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris' pre-Election Day appearance on “Saturday Night Live.” He wrote an op-ed last month defending a satellite company owned by Trump supporter Elon Musk. Trump said Atkins, the CEO of Patomak Partners and a former SEC commissioner, was a “proven leader for common sense regulations.” In the years since leaving the SEC, Atkins has made the case against too much market regulation. “He believes in the promise of robust, innovative capital markets that are responsive to the needs of Investors, & that provide capital to make our Economy the best in the World. He also recognizes that digital assets & other innovations are crucial to Making America Greater than Ever Before,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The commission oversees U.S. securities markets and investments and is currently led by Gary Gensler, who has been leading the U.S. government’s crackdown on the crypto industry. Gensler, who was nominated by President Joe Biden, announced last month that he would be stepping down from his post on the day that Trump is inaugurated — Jan. 20, 2025. Atkins began his career as a lawyer and has a long history working in the financial markets sector, both in government and private practice. In the 1990s, he worked on the staffs of two former SEC chairmen, Richard C. Breeden and Arthur Levitt. Rep. Elise Stefanik is a and one of Trump's staunchest defenders going back to his first impeachment. Elected to the House in 2014, Stefanik was selected by her GOP House colleagues as House Republican Conference chair in 2021, when former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney was removed from the post after publicly criticizing Trump for falsely claiming he won the 2020 election. Stefanik, 40, has served in that role ever since as the third-ranking member of House leadership. Stefanik’s questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on their campuses helped lead to two of those presidents resigning, further raising her national profile. If confirmed, she would represent American interests at the U.N. as Trump vows to end the war waged by Russia against Ukraine begun in 2022. He has also called for peace as Israel continues its offensive against Hamas in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon to target Hezbollah. A Republican congressman from Michigan who served from 1993 to 2011, Hoekstra was ambassador to the Netherlands during Trump's first term. “In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said in a statement announcing his choice. “He did an outstanding job as United States Ambassador to the Netherlands during our first four years, and I am confident that he will continue to represent our Country well in this new role.” Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel's interests as it wages wars against the Iran-backed Hamas and Hezbollah. “He loves Israel, and likewise the people of Israel love him,” Trump said in a statement. “Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East.” Huckabee, who ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008 and 2016, has been a popular figure among evangelical Christian conservatives, many of whom support Israel due to Old Testament writings that Jews are God’s chosen people and that Israel is their rightful homeland. Trump has been praised by some in this important Republican voting bloc for moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Trump on Tuesday named real estate investor Steven Witkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East. The 67-year-old Witkoff is the president-elect's golf partner and was golfing with him at Trump's club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, when the former president was the target of a second attempted assassination. Witkoff “is a Highly Respected Leader in Business and Philanthropy,” Trump said of Witkoff in a statement. “Steve will be an unrelenting Voice for PEACE, and make us all proud." Trump also named Witkoff co-chair, with former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler, of his inaugural committee. Trump said Wednesday that he will nominate Gen. Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. Kellogg, a retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as National Security Advisor to Trump's former Vice President Mike Pence. For the America First Policy Institute, one of several groups formed after Trump left office to help lay the groundwork for the next Republican administration, Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib) Trump asked Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., a retired Army National Guard officer and war veteran, to be his national security adviser, Trump announced in a statement Tuesday. The move puts Waltz in the middle of national security crises, ranging from efforts to provide weapons to Ukraine and worries about the growing alliance between Russia and North Korea to the persistent attacks in the Middle East by Iran proxies and the push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah. “Mike has been a strong champion of my America First Foreign Policy agenda,” Trump's statement said, "and will be a tremendous champion of our pursuit of Peace through Strength!” Waltz is a three-term GOP congressman from east-central Florida. He served multiple tours in Afghanistan and also worked in the Pentagon as a policy adviser when Donald Rumsfeld and Robert Gates were defense chiefs. He is considered hawkish on China, and called for a U.S. boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing due to its involvement in the origin of COVID-19 and its mistreatment of the minority Muslim Uighur population. Stephen Miller, an , was a vocal spokesperson during the presidential campaign for Trump's priority of mass deportations. The 39-year-old was a senior adviser during Trump's first administration. Miller has been a central figure in some of Trump's policy decisions, notably his move to separate thousands of immigrant families. Trump argued throughout the campaign that the nation's economic, national security and social priorities could be met by deporting people who are in the United States illegally. Since Trump left office in 2021, Miller has served as the president of America First Legal, an organization made up of former Trump advisers aimed at challenging the Biden administration, media companies, universities and others over issues such as free speech and national security. Thomas Homan, 62, with Trump’s top priority of carrying out the largest deportation operation in the nation’s history. Homan, who served under Trump in his first administration leading U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was widely expected to be offered a position related to the border, an issue Trump made central to his campaign. Though Homan has insisted such a massive undertaking would be humane, he has long been a loyal supporter of Trump's policy proposals, suggesting at a July conference in Washington that he would be willing to "run the biggest deportation operation this country’s ever seen.” Democrats have criticized Homan for his defending Trump's “zero tolerance” policy on border crossings during his first administration, which led to the separation of thousands of parents and children seeking asylum at the border. Former Rep. Billy Long represented Missouri in the U.S. House from 2011 to 2023. Since leaving Congress, Trump said, Long “has worked as a Business and Tax advisor, helping Small Businesses navigate the complexities of complying with the IRS Rules and Regulations.” Former Georgia Sen. Kelly Loeffler was appointed in January 2020 by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and then lost a runoff election a year later. She started a conservative voter registration organization and dived into GOP fundraising, becoming one of the top individual donors and bundlers to Trump’s 2024 comeback campaign. Even before nominating her for agriculture secretary, the president-elect already had tapped Loeffler as co-chair of his inaugural committee. Dr. Mehmet Oz, 64, is a former heart surgeon who hosted “The Dr. Oz Show,” a long-running daytime television talk show. He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as the Republican nominee in 2022 and is an outspoken supporter of Trump, who endorsed Oz's bid for elected office. Elon Musk, left, and Vivek Ramaswamy speak before Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump at an Oct. 27 campaign rally at Madison Square Garden in New York. Trump on Tuesday said Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Ramaswamy will lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency. The acronym “DOGE” is a nod to Musk's favorite cryptocurrency, dogecoin. Trump said Musk and Ramaswamy will work from outside the government to offer the White House “advice and guidance” and will partner with the Office of Management and Budget to “drive large scale structural reform, and create an entrepreneurial approach to Government never seen before.” He added the move would shock government systems. It's not clear how the organization will operate. Musk, owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been a constant presence at Mar-a-Lago since Trump won the presidential election. Ramaswamy suspended his campaign in January and threw his support behind Trump. Trump said the two will “pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies.” Russell Vought held the position during Trump’s first presidency. After Trump’s initial term ended, Vought founded the Center for Renewing America, a think tank that describes its mission as “renew a consensus of America as a nation under God.” Vought was closely involved with Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for Trump’s second term that he tried to distance himself from during the campaign. Vought has also previously worked as the executive and budget director for the Republican Study Committee, a caucus for conservative House Republicans. He also worked at Heritage Action, the political group tied to The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. Scavino, whom Trump's transition referred to in a statement as one of “Trump's longest serving and most trusted aides,” was a senior adviser to Trump's 2024 campaign, as well as his 2016 and 2020 campaigns. He will be deputy chief of staff and assistant to the president. Scavino had run Trump's social media profile in the White House during his first administration. He was also held in contempt of Congress in 2022 after a month-long refusal to comply with a subpoena from the House committee’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Blair was political director for Trump's 2024 campaign and for the Republican National Committee. He will be deputy chief of staff for legislative, political and public affairs and assistant to the president. Blair was key to Trump's economic messaging during his winning White House comeback campaign this year, a driving force behind the candidate's “Trump can fix it” slogan and his query to audiences this fall if they were better off than four years ago. Budowich is a veteran Trump campaign aide who launched and directed Make America Great Again, Inc., a super PAC that supported Trump's 2024 campaign. He will be deputy chief of staff for communications and personnel and assistant to the president. Budowich also had served as a spokesman for Trump after his presidency. Trump has chosen Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health. Bhattacharya is a physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, and is a critic of pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates. He promoted the idea of herd immunity during the pandemic, arguing that people at low risk should live normally while building up immunity to COVID-19 through infection. The National Institutes of Health funds medical research through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. NIH also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at its labs in Bethesda, Maryland. Makary is a Johns Hopkins surgeon and author who argued against pandemic lockdowns. He routinely appeared on Fox News during the COVID-19 pandemic and wrote opinion articles questioning masks for children. He cast doubt on vaccine mandates but supported vaccines generally. Makary also cast doubt on whether booster shots worked, which was against federal recommendations on the vaccine. Nesheiwat is a general practitioner who serves as medical director for CityMD, a network of urgent care centers in New York and New Jersey. She has been a contributor to Fox News. Weldon is a former Florida congressman who recently ran for a Florida state legislative seat and lost; Trump backed Weldon’s opponent. In Congress, Weldon weighed in on one of the nation’s most heated debates of the 1990s over quality of life and a right-to-die and whether Terri Schiavo, who was in a persistent vegetative state after cardiac arrest, should have been allowed to have her feeding tube removed. He sided with the parents who did not want it removed. Trump is turning to two officials with experience navigating not only Washington but the key issues of income taxes and tariffs as he fills out his economic team. He announced he has chosen international trade attorney Jamieson Greer to be his U.S. trade representative and Kevin Hassett as director of the White House National Economic Council. While Trump has in several cases nominated outsiders to key posts, these picks reflect a recognition that his reputation will likely hinge on restoring the public’s confidence in the economy. Trump said in a statement that Greer was instrumental in his first term in imposing tariffs on China and others and replacing the trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, “therefore making it much better for American Workers.” Hassett, 62, served in the first Trump term as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers. He has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and worked at the right-leaning American Enterprise Institute before joining the Trump White House in 2017. Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.

Once teammates, Rollie Worster and Steven Ashworth duel in Nebraska-Creighton rivalry

45 years ago, an 11-year-old and his brother started a band. Redd Kross won’t quitITV I'm A Celebrity viewers say 'she needed that' as star seals immunity from public vote with 'winning strategy'NASSAU, Bahamas — Scottie Scheffler brought a new putting grip to the Hero World Challenge and felt enough improvement to be satisfied with the result, a 5-under 67 that left him three shots behind Cameron Young on Thursday. Young was playing for the first time since the BMW Championship more than three months ago and found great success on and around the greens of Albany Golf Club, chipping beautifully and holing four birdie putts from 15 feet or longer for his 64. He led by two shots over Justin Thomas in his first competition since his daughter was born a few weeks ago. Thomas ran off four straight birdies late in his round and was a fraction of an inch away with a fifth. The big surprise was Scheffler, the No. 1 player in golf who looked as good as he has all year in compiling eight victories, including an Olympic gold medal. His iron play has no equal. His putting at times has kept him from winning more or winning bigger. He decided to try to a "saw" putting grip from about 20 feet or closer — the putter rests between his right thumb and his fingers, with his left index finger pointed down the shaft. People are also reading... "I'm always looking for ways to improve," Scheffler said. Scheffler last year began working with renowned putting instructor Phil Kenyon, and he says Kenyon mentioned the alternative putting grip back then. "But it was really our first time working together and it's something that's different than what I've done in the past," Scheffler said. "This year I had thought about it from time to time, and it was something that we had just said let's table that for the end of the season, take a look at it. "Figured this is a good week to try stuff." He opened with a wedge to 2 feet and he missed a 7-foot birdie putt on the par-5 third. But he holed a birdie from about the same distance at the next par 5, No. 6, and holed a sliding 6-footer on the ninth to save par. His longest putt was his last hole, from 12 feet for a closing birdie. "I really enjoyed the way it felt," he said. "I felt like I'm seeing some improvements in my stroke." Young, regarded as the best active player without a PGA Tour victory, is treating this holiday tournament as the start of a new season. He worked on getting stronger and got back to the basics in his powerful golf swing. And on this day, he was dialed in with his short game. He only struggled to save par twice and kept piling up birdies in his bogey-free round on an ideal day in the Bahamas. "The wind wasn't blowing much so it was relatively stress-free," Young said. Patrick Cantlay, along with Scheffler playing for the first time since the Presidents Cup, also was at 67 with Ludvig Aberg, Akshay Bhatia and Sahith Theegala. Thomas also took this occasion to do a little experimenting against a 20-man field. He has using a 46-inch driver at home — a little more than an inch longer than his regular driver — in a bid to gain more speed. On a day with little wind, on a golf course with some room off the tee, he decided to put it in play. "Just with it being a little bit longer, I just kind of have to get the club out in front of me and get on top of it a little bit more," Thomas said. "I drove the hell out of it on the back, so that was nice to try something different and have it go a little bit better on the back." Thomas said the longer driver gives him 2 or 3 mph in ball speed and 10 extra yards in the air. "It's very specific for courses, but gave it a try," he said. Conditions were easy enough that only four players in field failed to break par, with Jason Day bringing up the rear with a 75. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!

SHOPPERS could see an unexpected item in supermarkets this Christmas for the first time ever - and we've got the perfect festive recipe to celebrate it. Tesco, Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencers earlier confirmed they will stock home-grown strawberries on their shelves this winter season. Strawberries are usually imported over winter due to economic and environmental reasons. But fruit suppliers have innovated new technology which will finally allow strawberries to be grown in the UK all year round. The Summer Berry Company, a supplier in West Sussex, will be growing the fruit 12 months a year and supplying supermarkets. This means that shoppers will be able to get their hands on the British strawberries this Christmas as an exciting new addition to their festive celebrations and desserts. Typically the British strawberry season runs from May to October, and are a familiar sight in summer commonly associated with the Wimbledon tennis tournament. And bosses at The Summer Berry Company have come up with a mouth-watering dessert that will be a showstopper for Christmas Dinner. They promise it will be "a beautiful centre piece to a party table and makes a lovely grazing platter". The pretty strawberry wreath takes just 20 minutes to prepare - and even better, there's no cooking involved. Most read in Fabulous All you need is 600g of strawberries and 80g of dark, milk and white chocolate. First up, melt the different chocolates in separate bowls by placing in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time, stirring and returning for repeat 30 seconds slots until smooth and glossy. Next, line a baking tray with parchment or a reusable silicon sheet and arrange a selection of decorations - chopped nuts, desiccated coconut and candied orange peel - in separate bowls or plates. Dip whole strawberries into melted chocolate then sprinkle over a decoration and set aside on the baking tray to set. The Summer Berry Company team say: "You can vary your combinations of chocolate and decorations however you fancy." The strawberries usually set at room temperature within 10 minutes but you can also store them in a cool place until ready to serve. Finally, arrange a rough ring of greenery on a large platter or board in a circular shape, pile on the strawberries, adding in extra bits of green herb to decorate. Then simply add a big bow somewhere on the wreath to finish the effect.Kendrick Lamar's new album could be good news for the Golden State Warriors

NEW YORK , Dec. 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The Board of Directors of Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) declared a quarterly dividend of 70 cents per outstanding share of the corporation's common stock. The dividend is payable on January 10, 2025 to Omnicom common shareholders of record at the close of business on December 20, 2024. About Omnicom Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) is a leading provider of data-inspired, creative marketing and sales solutions. Omnicom's iconic agency brands are home to the industry's most innovative communications specialists who are focused on driving intelligent business outcomes for their clients. The company offers a wide range of services in advertising, strategic media planning and buying, precision marketing, retail and digital commerce, branding, experiential, public relations, healthcare marketing and other specialty marketing services to over 5,000 clients in more than 70 countries. For more information, visit www.omnicomgroup.com . View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/omnicom-declares-dividend-302324450.html SOURCE Omnicom Group Inc.

PARIS (AP) — Notre Dame Cathedral , its air thick with the smell of incense, hosted its first Mass on Sunday since the catastrophic fire of 2019, a moment that transcended religious significance to become a powerful symbol of Paris’ resilience. Beneath the glow of traditional chandeliers and modern spotlights, which illuminated its intricately carved stonework , the cathedral emerged reborn, its grandeur restored after five years of reconstruction. For Catholics, it marks the revival of the city’s spiritual heart, a place where faith has been nurtured for centuries. For the world, it signals the rebirth of one of global heritage's most famous landmarks. The event was both solemn and historic. Archbishop Laurent Ulrich presided over the morning Mass, including the consecration of a new bronze altar. The liturgy was attended by 2,500 people, including French President Emmanuel Macron — enjoying a brief respite from France's political tumult and economic troubles — clergy, dignitaries and a few lucky members of the general public who stood in long lines to enter. Nearly 170 bishops from France and around the world took part, along with one priest from each of the 113 parishes in the Paris diocese, accompanied by worshippers from these communities. Macron, in line with France’s strict division of state and church, did not take communion. Notre Dame’s journey from ruin to resurrection was defined by extraordinary craftsmanship, nearly $1 billion in global donations and a collective, unyielding determination to rebuild. After the Mass, faithful attendees, priests, nuns, and other guests lingered in the cathedral, their awe evident. Many took pictures and selfies in front of the altar, the baptistery, and vibrant rose windows, their joy mingling with reverence. Others knelt to pray at chapels dedicated to saints, savoring a spiritual intimacy many had not experienced since the fire. Later Sunday, the cathedral opened its doors to members of the public who secured reservations last week for the first fully public Mass. The Associated Press learned that tickets for this service were claimed within 25 minutes, underscoring Notre Dame’s enduring appeal. What’s more extraordinary is that this is taking place in a country with a strong emphasis on secularism and a low rate of church attendance. Public viewing areas along the Seine on Sunday morning drew hundreds of people who wished to witness the historic moment from afar, although their numbers were likely subdued by rainy and miserably cold weather conditions. Retired engineer Claude Lancrenon, watching from a viewing area, expressed both awe and disappointment. “There is so much security,” he said, gesturing toward the barriers. “Yesterday, that seemed appropriate. But today, I had hoped it would be more open so we could approach the cathedral. I still hope we’ll be able to get closer.” Tight security — akin to that of the Paris Olympic Games — reflected the importance of the occasion, ensuring the safety of dignitaries and the public alike. Nathalie Martino, a retired event organizer visiting Paris, recalled the anguish of watching the cathedral burn. “I cried so much that day,” she said. “And now, here I am. I had to come. It was something I needed to do.” Sunday’s Masses follow Saturday evening’s ceremonies in which Ulrich symbolically reopened the cathedral’s massive wooden doors by striking them three times with a crosier crafted from charred beams salvaged from the fire. As the doors swung open, choirs filled the air with song and the cathedral’s great organ — silent since the fire — resounded with majestic melodies. Inside, the restoration reveals a cathedral transformed with now-gleaming limestone walls cleaned of centuries of grime. The restored stained-glass windows project dazzling patterns of color across the nave. “No one alive has seen the cathedral like this,” said the Rev. Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, Notre Dame’s rector. "It is more than restored — it is reborn.” The consecration of the new altar was a pivotal moment in Notre Dame’s return to full liturgical life. The altar houses relics of five saints tied to Paris, including St. Catherine Labouré and St. Charles de Foucauld, continuing a centuries-old tradition of embedding sacred artifacts at the heart of worship spaces. The consecration, involving holy water, chrism oil, incense and prayer, transforms the altar into a sacred centerpiece of the cathedral. That was the most moving moment of the day for Marie Capucine, 37, a consecrated virgin representing her Parisian parish of Saint Germain des Prés at the reopening. She recalled the day the fire raged, and the ‘’communion in prayer all over the world'' for the cathedral to be saved. “That shows that the Church gathers, no matter whether people are believers or not, it says something to the world, something beautiful,” she concluded. The reopening of Notre Dame is also a moment of cultural and national unity. Macron, who vowed to restore the cathedral within five years after the fire, called the project “a jolt of hope” for France, a nation often divided by political crises. The Sunday Masses underscore Notre Dame’s dual role as a place of worship and a symbol of communal resilience. They also ensure that members of the broader Catholic community can partake in the cathedral’s spiritual revival. The path to restoration was fraught with challenges. Lead contamination forced work to pause, and the COVID-19 pandemic added delays. Yet the project, overseen by architect Philippe Villeneuve, has been hailed as a triumph of human ingenuity and collective resolve. Cutting-edge fire prevention systems, including thermal cameras and a misting system, have been installed to safeguard the cathedral’s future. Villeneuve described the effort as “restoring not just a building but the soul of a nation,” emphasizing the personal and national significance of the work. With its spire once again piercing the Parisian sky, Notre Dame is poised to reclaim its role as a global beacon of faith and art. The cathedral, which previously welcomed 12 million annual visitors, is expected to draw 15 million in its new chapter. This monumental revival is not confined to a single day. Ulrich has announced an “octave” of celebrations — eight days of special religious services, each with its own theme, running through Dec. 15. These daily liturgies, open to diverse groups from local parishioners to international pilgrims, emphasize Notre Dame’s role as a unifying spiritual hub. John Leicester, Yesica Brumec and Bela Szandelszky in Paris contributed. Associated Press religion coverage receives support through The AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.Three of these images are fake. Can you spot the real image? Some images generated by artificial intelligence have become so convincingly real that there is no surefire way to spot the fakes. But experts say there are still things we can try to detect fakes. "Media literacy is super awesome," said Matt Groh, assistant professor at Northwestern University. "But it needs to extend to AI literacy. Like the classic kind of things that you want to teach in media literacy, we still need to teach those same things. We just need to add the AI portion to it now." RELATED STORY | Nobel Prize in physics awarded to 2 scientists for discoveries that enabled artificial intelligence Groh's team at Northwestern released a guide on how to spot AI generated images. The full preprint paper was released in June. "So what we've done is we've articulated 5 different categories of artifacts, implausibilities," Groh said. "Ways to tell AI-generated image apart from a real photograph." The academic preprint guide offers detailed tips, tricks and examples on spotting AI-generated images. It also teaches important questions to consider when consuming media. Anatomical implausibilities The first and easiest telltale signs: anatomical implausibilities. Ask yourself: Are the fingers, eyes, and bodies off? Are there extra limbs or do they bend strangely? Are there too many teeth? Stylistic implausibilities Ask yourself: Do images seem plastic, glossy, shiny or cartoonish? Are there overly dramatic or cinematic? Functional implausibilities Ask yourself: Is text garbled? Is clothing strange? Are objects not physically correct, like how this backpack strap merges into clothing? Violation of physics Ask yourself: Are light and shadows off? Are there impossible reflections? Sociocultural implausibilities Ask yourself: Are there images that are just too unbelievable or historically inaccurate? RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone "What we're trying to do is give you a snapshot of what it looks like in 2024 and how we can help people move their attention as effectively as possible," Groh said. "Education is really the biggest thing. There's education on the tools," said Cole Whitecotton, senior professional research associate at the National Center for Media Forensics. Whitecotton encourages the public to educate themselves and try AI tools to know their capabilities and limits. "I think everybody should go out and use it. And look at how these things do what they do and understand a bit of it," he said. "Everyone should interact with ChatGPT. In some way. Everyone should interact with Midjourney. And look at how these things do what they do and understand a bit of it." Whitecotton suggests being inquisitive and curious when scrolling through social media. "If you interacted with every piece of content in that way, then there you would be a lot less likely to be duped and to be sort of sucked into that sort of stuff, right?" he said. "How do you interact with Facebook and with Twitter and all these things? How do you consume the media?" Whitecotton added. RELATED STORY | Biden's AI advisor speaks on AI policy, deepfakes, and the use of AI in war While AI-generated images and videos continue to evolve, Groh and his team offer a realistic approach to a changing technological landscape where tips and tricks may become outdated quickly. "I think a real, good, useful thing is we build this. We update this every year. Okay, some of these things work. Some of these things don't. And I think once we have a base, we're able to update it," Groh said. "I think one of the problems is we didn't have a base. And so one of the things we're really excited about is even sharing our framework, because I think our framework is going to help people just navigate that conversation." So were you able to guess which image is real? If you guessed the image of the girl in the bottom left corner, you are correct! "It sucks that there's this misinformation in the world. But it's also possible to navigate this new problem," Groh said. If you want to test yourself even more, the Northwestern University research team has released this site that gives you a series of real and AI-generated images to differentiate.

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8bet login President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court on Friday to pause the potential TikTok ban from going into effect until his administration can pursue a “political resolution” to the issue. The request came as TikTok and the Biden administration filed opposing briefs to the court, in which the company argued the court should strike down a law that could ban the platform by Jan. 19 while the government emphasized its position that the statute is needed to eliminate a national security risk. “President Trump takes no position on the underlying merits of this dispute. Instead, he respectfully requests that the Court consider staying the Act’s deadline for divestment of January 19, 2025, while it considers the merits of this case,” said Trump’s amicus brief, which supported neither party in the case and was written by D. John Sauer, Trump’s choice for solicitor general. The argument submitted to the court is the latest example of Trump inserting himself in national issues before he takes office. The Republican president-elect has already begun negotiating with other countries over his plans to impose tariffs, and he intervened earlier this month in a plan to fund the federal government, calling for a bipartisan plan to be rejected and sending Republicans back to the negotiating table. He has been holding meetings with foreign leaders and business officials at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida while he assembles his administration, including a meeting last week with TikTok CEO Shou Chew. Trump has reversed his position on the popular app, having tried to ban it during his first term in office over national security concerns. He joined the TikTok during his 2024 presidential campaign and his team used it to connect with younger voters, especially male voters, by pushing content that was often macho and aimed at going viral. He said earlier this year that he still believed there were national security risks with TikTok, but that he opposed banning it. The filings Friday come ahead of oral arguments scheduled for Jan. 10 on whether the law, which requires TikTok to divest from its China-based parent company or face a ban, unlawfully restricts speech in violation of the First Amendment. The law was was signed by President Joe Biden in April after it passed Congress with broad bipartisan support. TikTok and ByteDance filed a legal challenge afterwards. Earlier this month, a panel of three federal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld the statute, leading TikTok to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. The brief from Trump said he opposes banning TikTok at this junction and “seeks the ability to resolve the issues at hand through political means once he takes office.” In their brief to the Supreme Court on Friday, attorneys for TikTok and its parent company ByteDance argued the federal appeals court erred in its ruling and based its decision on “alleged ‘risks’ that China could exercise control” over TikTok’s U.S. platform by pressuring its foreign affiliates. The Biden administration has argued in court that TikTok poses a national security risk due to its connections to China. Officials say Chinese authorities can compel ByteDance to hand over information on TikTok’s U.S. patrons or use the platform to spread or suppress information. But the government “concedes that it has no evidence China has ever attempted to do so,” TikTok’s legal filing said, adding that the U.S. fears are predicated on future risks. In its filing Friday, the Biden administration said because TikTok “is integrated with ByteDance and relies on its propriety engine developed and maintained in China,” its corporate structure carries with it risk.is not here for the haters. The 70-year-old mother of fiercely defended her daughter's dazzling halftime performance at the game, addressing critics with a fiery Instagram post. Reposting a fan's comment that read, Tina and delivered a pointed message to trolls. Knowles wrote. She didn't stop there, with Beyoncé. Critics are frustrated fans: Tina Knowles To finish off the haters, the matriarch of the clan said, Houston halftime show, dubbed the lived up to its name . Dressed in a white-feathered gown, cowboy hat, and a striking red, white, and blue sash, . She performed hits like with Shaboozey and alongside Post Malone. In a touching moment, , Blue Ivy, for a mother-daughter duet of The Beyoncé Bowl In view of her daughter's success, Tina offered , suggesting the critics skip Beyoncé's next performance and instead. Drawing strength , Knowles quoted scripture, saying, and praised Beyoncé's The performance , and wasted no time, announcing that the 13-minute show is now streaming as . As for Tina Knowles? She's made it crystal clear: trolls may try, .

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his visit to Kuwait on Saturday, highlighted India's readiness to support the development of a 'New Kuwait' with its vast pool of manpower, expertise, and cutting-edge technology. He praised the Indian diaspora for enriching the nation with their skills and contributions. PM Modi, visiting at the invitation of Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Meshal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Kuwait in over four decades. Addressing the Indian diaspora, he said, "After 43 years, more than four decades, an Indian Prime Minister has come to Kuwait. It takes four hours to reach Kuwait from India but it took four decades for the Prime Minister,” PM Modi commended the strong cultural and commercial ties between India and Kuwait, noting that their partnership is scaling new heights. “In the past, the relationship that was built by culture and commerce is scaling new heights today. Today, Kuwait is an important energy and trade partner of India. For the Kuwaiti companies too, India is a huge investment destination. His Highness Crown Prince of Kuwait, during our meeting in New York, said, 'When you are in need, India is your destination.' The citizens of India and Kuwait have always helped each other in times of distress,” he added. Highlighting shared aspirations, the Prime Minister said, “In the decades to come, we will become partners in our prosperity. Our goals aren't different! The people of Kuwait are building New Kuwait. The people of Bharat are working to build India into a developed nation by 2047.” During his visit, PM Modi toured the Gulf Spic Labour Camp, where over 90% of the residents are Indians, and engaged with the expatriate community, which numbers around one million in Kuwait. He expressed admiration for their contributions, saying, “Their energy, love, and unwavering connection to India are truly inspiring. Proud of their role in strengthening ties between our nations.” PM Modi also met 101-year-old former IFS officer Mangal Sain Handa, publisher Abdul Lateef Al-Nesef, and translator Abdullah Al-Baroun, who brought Indian epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata to Arabic-speaking audiences. On his arrival, PM Modi was received by Sheikh Fahad Yousef Saud Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s first deputy prime minister and minister of defence and interior, along with foreign minister Abdullah Ali Al-Yahya and other dignitaries. He described the warm welcome as a testament to the enduring friendship between the two nations. Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India . Don't miss daily games like Crossword , Sudoku , and Mini Crossword .The GHMC, in collaboration with National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Warangal, is proposing to establish a technology centre to address urban challenges such as traffic congestion and drainage management. The aim is to develop and deliver modern, practical, and sustainable solutions, incorporating them at the planning stage. The centre’s traffic and transportation division will conduct in-depth analyses of the city's traffic patterns and transportation systems. The drainage information centre will undertake a comprehensive study of Hyderabad's drainage network. During a meeting on Saturday, GHMC commissioner K. Ilambarithi emphasised the importance of collaborative efforts between GHMC and NIT-Warangal. Prof. C.S.R.K. Prasad from NIT Warangal suggested entering into a structured agreement to ensure sustained operations.

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"I didn't try to conceal anything. I tried to put down exactly how I felt." That's how former President Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday at age 100, described the White House diary he published at age 85. He told Lesley Stahl that he dictated into a tape recorder seven or eight times virtually every day he was in office, and later transcribed those notes, excerpts of which became the book. As he explained in 2010 (full story above), it offers an unusually candid take on the highest office in the land – and his own disappointments. Carter railed against the late Ted Kennedy, for instance, who ran against him for the Democratic nomination in 1980. He referred to members of Congress as "juvenile delinquents," and told Stahl he considered it "blackmail" when they sought his support for a political appointee in exchange for their votes on legislation. But Carter also turned a critical eye on himself, admitting to Stahl that he alienated too many Congress members, and that his folksy style offended some of his constituents. When he insisted, for instance, that "Hail to the Chief" no longer be played when he entered a room, a public outcry forced him to reverse himself. With the country facing long gasoline lines and double-digit inflation, even Carter's own loyalists began to question him. He described a brutal Cabinet meeting to Stahl. "I think they were telling me that the public image of me was that I was not a strong leader, that I should not only arouse support from affection, but also from fear," he told Stahl. Carter agreed to alter his strategy, but he still favored diplomacy over military might — even when 52 Americans were held hostage in Iran. After a failed rescue attempt by the U.S. military, some Americans called on the president to bomb Tehran, but he refused. "We went through four years. We never fired a bullet. We never dropped a bomb. We never launched a missile," he told Stahl. "There's no doubt that usually a president's public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me." Carter knew his legacy might suffer. In a 1985 story, Mike Wallace visited the former president at home in Plains, Georgia and asked him about his lackluster reputation. If Ronald Reagan had an untouchable "Teflon presidency," Wallace proposed, surely Carter's was the "flypaper presidency" – with Carter himself shouldering the blame when anything went wrong. "I think that's true," Carter said. "When I was there, there was no doubt who was responsible." Stahl raised a similar point in her 2010 story. Despite victories like brokering a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt, normalizing relations with China, and vastly reducing our reliance on foreign oil, Carter was often remembered as a "failed" president. Yet, she noted, his image was transformed after he left office, as he committed himself to fighting disease in poor countries and helping to resolve conflicts abroad, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. "A lot of critics of yours, when you were president, say that you've been a fantastic ex-president," Stahl told him. "You hear that all the time." "I don't mind that," Carter said, laughing at the thought.A big battery will plug into the solar corridor to the south of Canberra, with the profits to go to the taxpayer in a revenue-sharing first. Located next to existing powerlines and solar farms, construction has begun on Eku Energy's $400 million project that will bring 200 jobs for local tradies. The 250 megawatt/500 MW hour Williamsdale battery energy storage system located 35km south of Canberra will store enough renewable energy to power one-third of the capital for two hours during peak demand periods when it comes online in 2026. A critical energy asset for greater energy security and a bulwark against future price spikes, it is also a crucial step in the fight against climate change, according to ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr. Importantly, a revenue-sharing deal means profits from the project will flow to the ACT and pay for more clean energy and other services for a growing population, he said in Williamsdale. "That is an important principle for our community, who want to see investment in renewable energy and battery storage not only supporting the effectiveness and reliability of our energy network but generating revenue." Recently re-elected and already the nation's longest-serving political leader, Mr Barr says the revenue-sharing model could be extended nationally as a good template for government procurement. Working with Evoenergy, Tesla Energy and the Australian Energy Market Operator, the Williamsdale battery will also be part of the NSW energy market and the broader east coast energy market. "The electrons flow in real time so what we would be replacing is the next most expensive form of generation when we dispatch," Eku Energy chief executive Daniel Burrows told AAP. It will provide additional supply when the market is tight, which should help lower wholesale prices and support making more clean energy available when it is required, he said. The battery will also provide more grid security by responding within milliseconds to demand and storing energy when it is abundant. "What we have in Australia is a prevalence of distributed energy - rooftop solar, large-scale wind and batteries - and a reasonably sophisticated grid," Mr Burrows said. "As we're doing business all around the world, other businesses, other governments, other industry players are looking to what happens here as to how we might manage the energy transition." Not a player in a nuclear energy future, he says Eku Energy focuses on projects that are "genuinely the most cost-effective and will stand the test of time". A $500 million community grants program set up by the company will be available to eligible local non-profit organisations for employment and education, social and environment initiatives. Another $500,000 will go to an Australian National University program that has been a testing ground for neighbourhood batteries and other technology. "Research funding in this area helps ensure we remain at the forefront of advancing technology for a clean energy future," Battery Storage and Grid Integration Program co-director Heather Logie says. Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Energy and Water Suzanne Orr donned high-vis gear to shovel dirt alongside Mr Barr in her first public engagement in her new portfolio. Simon Corbell, the architect of the ACT's clean energy transition as a Labor minister more than a decade ago, is one of her heroes, she told AAP. "Everyone has a different journey in coming to politics and mine has definitely been flavoured by the environmental movement," she said. Ms Orr, first elected in 2016, replaced former energy and emissions reduction minister Greens Leader Shane Rattenbury in the new government that has taken power without the ACT Greens as a partner. Canberra has already achieved a nation-leading 100 per cent renewable electricity supply and the ACT is aiming for net-zero emissions by 2045. The territory is phasing out household gas, with support for households to buy new appliances, electric vehicles, solar panels and batteries. But Ms Orr said the next stage of the transition will be more than "care and maintenance" of what has already been achieved. "I don't think anyone wants to rest on their laurels," she said. The Big Canberra Battery project that Mr Barr began as climate action minister will include the large-scale system in Williamsdale and neighbourhood-scale batteries at nine government sites.

Victor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New YorkHerbert tosses 3 TD passes and Chargers secure a playoff spot with a 40-7 rout of Patriots FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Justin Herbert threw three touchdown passes and the Los Angeles Chargers clinched their second playoff appearance in three seasons with a 40-7 victory over the New England Patriots. The win also secured the fourth postseason appearance in Jim Harbaugh’s five seasons as an NFL coach, adding to the three he made during his stint with tAshe San Francisco 49ers. Herbert finished 26 of 38 for 281 yards to become the third player in NFL history with at least 3,000 passing yards and 20 touchdown passes in each of his first five seasons. The Patriots have lost six straight games, their second such losing streak of the season. They are now 2-14 the last two seasons at home. Dallas' Naji Marshall gets 4-game suspension, Phoenix's Jusuf Nurkic is banned 3 games for fight The NBA has suspended Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall for four games and Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic for three games for their roles in an on-court fight during Friday night’s game. Dallas forward P.J. Washington was suspended for one game. All of the suspensions are without pay. Nurkic was called for an offensive foul while being guarded by Daniel Gafford with 9:02 left in the third quarter before the altercation quickly escalated. Nurkic confronted Marshall before taking an open-handed swing at his head and then Marshall responded with a punch. Washington quickly shoved Nurkic to the ground before the teams were separated. The NBA said Marshall “attempted to further engage Nurkic in a hostile manner in the corridor outside the locker rooms.” Shohei Ohtani to become a father for the 1st time in 2025 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is adding a newcomer to his family lineup. The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar has posted on his Instagram account that he and wife Mamiko Tanaka are expecting a baby in 2025. The photo shows the couple's beloved dog, Decoy, as well as a pink ruffled onesie along with baby shoes and a sonogram that is covered by a baby emoji. Ohtani announced in February that he had married Tanaka, a former professional basketball player from his native Japan. The news from the intensely private player stunned Ohtani's teammates and his fans. Eli Manning and Antonio Gates are among the finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, former Defensive Players of the Year Luke Kuechly and Terrell Suggs, and prolific tight end Antonio Gates are among the finalists for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class. The Hall on Saturday announced the names of the 15 modern-era finalists who advanced from a group of 25 to the final stage of voting. The selection committee will vote next month to pick the class of between three and five modern-era players that will be announced the week of the Super Bowl. Georgia QB Carson Beck announces plan to enter NFL draft after season-ending elbow injury Georgia quarterback Carson Beck has announced his plans to enter the NFL draft, five days after having season-ending elbow surgery. The fifth-year senior made his NFL plans official on social media. Beck suffered a right elbow injury in the first half of the Bulldogs’ 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 7. Beck had surgery on Monday to repair his ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow. He is expected to begin throwing next spring. Backup Gunner Stockton will make his first start in the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame on Wednesday. Victor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New York Victor Wembanyama went to a park in New York City and played 1-on-1 with fans on Saturday. He even lost a couple of games. Not in basketball, though. Wemby was playing chess. Before the San Antonio Spurs left New York for a flight to Minnesota, Wembanyama put out the call on social media: “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,” Wembanyama wrote. It was 9:36 a.m. And people began showing up almost immediately. Mavs star Luka Doncic is latest pro athlete whose home was burglarized, business manager says DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is the latest professional athlete whose home has been burglarized. The star guard’s business manager tells multiple media outlets there was a break-in at Doncic’s home Friday night. Lara Beth Seager says nobody was home, and Doncic filed a police report. The Dallas Morning News reports that jewelry valued at about $30,000 was stolen. Doncic is the sixth known pro athlete in the U.S. whose home was burglarized since October. Star NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Joe Burrow of Cincinnati are among them. The NFL and NBA have issued security alerts to players over the break-ins. Panthers place 1,000-yard rusher Chuba Hubbard on IR for final 2 games with strained calf CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers have shut down leading rusher Chuba Hubbard for the final two games of the season because of a strained calf. He was placed on injured reserve Saturday. Hubbard was limited in practice Friday with a knee injury and was listed as questionable to play Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After practice, Hubbard complained of pain and had an MRI, which revealed a grade two calf strain, according to the team. Hubbard ran for 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He becomes the third Panthers running back to be placed on injured reserve this season, joining Miles Sanders and rookie Jonathan Brooks. Corbin Burnes and Arizona Diamondbacks agree to $210 million, 6-year deal, AP source says PHOENIX (AP) — Corbin Burnes and the Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a $210 million, six-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was pending a successful physical. The 30-year-old Burnes was perhaps the top free agent pitcher on the market after going 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA for Baltimore last season. The Orioles acquired the right-hander in a February trade after he spent his first six major league seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. Miami's Cam Ward sets NCAA's Division I record with 156th career touchdown pass ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Cam Ward has made NCAA history in his final college game. The Miami quarterback has thrown a record-setting 156th touchdown pass of his college career, connecting with Jacolby George for a 4-yard score with 4:12 left in the first quarter of the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That’s the Division I — FBS and FCS — record, one more than Houston’s Case Keenum threw for from 2007 through 2011.Pamela Anderson Has Heard From ‘a Lot of Great Directors’ Following ‘The Last Showgirl’ Success

In a rapidly evolving digital landscape, Balachandar Ramalingam's leadership in implementing an AI-driven 3D Data Classification and Standardization System marks a groundbreaking achievement in component management for global product lines. In this interview, we discuss the challenges, innovations, and significant impact of this project, which has redefined intelligent manufacturing processes. Could you start by telling us what motivated you to pursue this AI-based transformation in component management? Certainly! The motivation stemmed from the complexities of managing increasingly diverse product portfolios. As operations expanded globally, legacy systems struggled to keep pace with the demand for accurate component identification. This led to inefficiencies, higher inventory costs, and longer procurement cycles. We needed a solution that could automate and standardize the way we classified and managed components, and AI was the perfect fit for this challenge. What was the core idea behind the AI-based system you developed? The core idea was to build an intelligent, shape-based component classification system powered by AI. We focused on creating a centralized repository of standardized component data, accessible across all our global operations. The AI model we developed could automatically identify, classify, and match components based on their shapes, ensuring consistency and reducing redundancies. This system also made it easier for teams to quickly find and reuse components across different product lines, which was a game-changer for us. How did the collaboration with cross-functional teams play a role in the success of this project? Collaboration was crucial. We worked closely with data scientists, design engineers, supply chain teams, and manufacturing experts. Each team brought unique insights into the classification process and its challenges. This cross-functional collaboration helped refine the AI model and ensure its successful implementation across various regions. Having a unified approach allowed us to address complex problems more effectively and align our efforts with the global strategy. What were the measurable outcomes of this initiative? The impact was substantial. We achieved a 20% reduction in inventory costs through improved component identification and reuse. Our supply chain efficiency also increased by 18%, thanks to better component standardization and streamlined procurement processes. Most importantly, overall profitability improved by 10%, which highlights the broader operational benefits of the system. The project didn’t just save costs – it also optimized our resources and accelerated product development cycles. How did this project improve time-to-market and resource utilization? By reducing procurement lead times and enabling teams to reuse components more efficiently, we could get products to market much faster. The AI system also helped identify underutilized components across product lines, improving resource allocation. This meant that manufacturing teams could focus on innovation instead of spending excessive time sourcing and managing new parts. What were some key insights you gained from this transformation process? One key insight was the importance of having high-quality training data for machine learning models. The accuracy of the system depended heavily on the data we fed it. Another important lesson was the need for continuous improvement – the AI model had to be constantly refined based on real-world feedback. We also learned that proper integration and alignment across teams were essential for successful system adoption. Looking ahead, what does the future hold for AI in manufacturing? This project has set a strong foundation for future AI applications in manufacturing. The success we’ve seen with component classification can be extended to other areas like predictive maintenance and supply chain optimization. I believe AI will continue to revolutionize manufacturing by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and driving innovation. Finally, how has this project impacted your career? This project has been a significant milestone in my career. It not only deepened my expertise in AI but also gave me invaluable experience in leading large-scale systems deployment. The success of this initiative has positioned me as an innovator in manufacturing technology, and I’m excited to continue exploring new ways AI can enhance industrial processes.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Mumbai will experience partly cloudy skies with light showers in some coastal areas. Delhi will remain clear with no rainfall, experiencing cool weather with temperatures ranging from 8°C to 24°C. Chennai is likely to see intermittent light rain, with temperatures around 28°C during the day and 22°C at night. Bengaluru will enjoy mild, dry weather with temperatures between 19°C and 26°C, while Hyderabad will remain dry with clear skies and temperatures ranging from 18°C to 26°C. Kolkata is expected to have cloudy skies with light to moderate rain in the afternoon, and temperatures will range between 18°C and 28°C. Shimla will experience cold, clear skies with temperatures ranging from 4°C to 12°C, with no rain expected. Uttar Pradesh Weather Forecast: IMD Forecast Moderate Rainfall Accompanying Thunderstorms in UP . (SocialLY brings you all the latest breaking news, viral trends and information from social media world, including Twitter (X), Instagram and Youtube. The above post is embeded directly from the user's social media account and LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body. The views and facts appearing in the social media post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY, also LatestLY does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.)President Jimmy Carter surprised a Pennsylvania family of three in 1979 with a visit to their Carnegie home. The Fishers were not sure why they were picked to entertain the president. They said they weren’t very political and neither had voted for Carter in the previous election. The family was joined by five others at their house where Carter asked for a frank appraisal of his administration. WATCH the video to see what tough opinions the Fishers said Carter had to face. Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at the age of 100.It would be easy to argue against making New Year’s resolutions. They’re hard to keep and, often, too narrow in focus. In a rapidly changing world, why would we think that something we value in January will still hold true in June? Yet, despite those risks, my 2025 New Year’s resolution feels instinctive and solid. A little background is required. My parents supported their family through a small corner grocery store. As their children, we were the unpaid hired hands who would do odd jobs to help my parents and assist customers in whatever ways they asked. My parents were the kind of grocers one could only dream of having. Kind, generous, willing to let customers buy on credit, willing to hear them share way more information about their lives than my parents truthfully wanted to hear. The attitude at Utica Grocery was summed up in an edict my father frequently told us: “What goes around, comes around.” By this, he meant if we treated people with respect and dignity, we could expect the same back. Be kind, and people will be kind to us. Be charitable, and people will extend a helping hand. It was what my parents modeled daily, and we, as their children, learned. So why, in 2025, am I hearing my dad’s message so loudly? I fear it is because of what we’ve become. We seem very me-centered. We’ve grown cynical. Generosity of spirit — helping people in non-material ways — can be hard to spot. Our patience continues to dwindle. I realized I was having a “patience problem” when I recently began to learn the game of Mahjong. Picking up the game was my way of preparing for some eventual retirement. It’s intended to help me connect with others when I’m not at the dog park, attending synagogue, or at my desk writing. Many research studies have confirmed the value of social connections as we age. So I’m sitting at the Mahjong table, and one of the players is taking a very long time to choose which tiles to drop. In fairness to him, he was a chief financial officer and is preternaturally precise and strategic in thinking through his moves. But now, our Mahjong game has slowed to a crawl. I become antsy. While I could have engaged in self-talk and said, “Everyone is learning, and everyone’s pace is different. Cool your jets,” I didn’t do that. Instead, I said, “Jack, you know we learn by making mistakes, so don’t be afraid to make some. Plus, we have only 20 more minutes. At this rate, we might not finish the game.” The other two players at the table smiled when I said this. They were getting impatient, too, but they had more self-restraint. I parked this observation about my impatience until later when I thought back to my dad, who epitomized patience and kindness. Even better, on issues far more consequential than playing Mahjong, my dad had a habit of giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. Were he sitting at the Mahjong table, I can imagine my dad saying, “I bet Jack is going to teach us something really important. We’re lucky he’s so thoughtful.” Imagine that? Imagine having the instinct to give people the benefit of the doubt. It’s a far cry from our world today, where we brood about people gaming the system or feel despair about hypocritical leaders, or wonder whether scientists still offer objective truth. The list is endless, and the mental toll it takes to always be on the lookout for behavior we can call out is deflating. Maybe my dad was onto something. Changing our lens and viewing the world with a bigger heart and a more open mind can yield positive effects. We might find that when we give people the benefit of the doubt, they live up to our expectations. And giving really is more fun than receiving. Optimism might become a new norm, and along with it might come better mental health, more resilience and an overall improved quality of life. All I had to do was remind myself of my father’s words: “What goes around, comes around.” And just like that, my 2025 resolution is born. Lead with positivity and kindness, and it will help me believe in our future, in what may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Jill Ebstein is the editor of the “At My Pace” series of books and the founder of Sized Right Marketing, a consulting firm. Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!The 25-year-old Sweden international took his goal tally for the season to 12 in the 3-0 Boxing Day win over Aston Villa at St James’ Park, 10 of them in his last 10 Premier League games, after a challenging start to the new campaign. Isak managed 25 goals in a black and white shirt last season to further justify the club record £63million the club paid to bring him to Tyneside from Real Sociedad during the summer of 2022, but as delighted as he is with his big-money signing, head coach Howe is confident there is even more to come. Murph 🔗 Alex Isak Different game. Same link up. 💪 pic.twitter.com/OMhZf7dtKZ — Newcastle United (@NUFC) December 27, 2024 Asked where the former AIK Solna frontman currently ranks in world football, he said: “My biggest thing with Alex is I am evaluating his game on a daily and weekly basis and I just want to try to push him for more. “Everyone else can say where he is in the pecking order of world football. His game is in a good place at the moment. “My job is to not sit back and appreciate that, my job is to try and find areas he can improve, push him towards that and never stop pushing him. He has all the ingredients in there. Football never stops evolving and changing and he has to evolve with it. “There is a lot more to come from him. Our job is to help him deliver that. “Of course the main responsibility is for Alex to keep his focus, ignore the plaudits and keep helping the team, not be selfish. It is about Newcastle and he plays his part.” It is no coincidence that Newcastle have prospered as Isak has rediscovered his best form, and they will head for Manchester United – where they have won only once in the top flight since 1972 – on Monday evening looking for a fifth successive win in all competitions. He has scored in each of the last five league games having grown into the mantle of the Magpies’ main man, a role performed with such distinction in the past by the likes of Jackie Milburn, Malcolm Macdonald and Alan Shearer, and he has done so with the minimum of fuss. Asked about his character, Howe said: “He is calm, cool – he is what you see on the pitch. “He doesn’t get overly emotional, which for a striker is a great quality because that coolness you see and calmness in front of goal is part of his personality, part of what he is. He seems to have an extra half a second when other players don’t. “With Alex, the beauty of his attitude is that he wants to improve. We give him information and he is responsive. He is not a closed shop. “He is in no way thinking he has arrived at a certain place. He knows he has to keep adding to his game. The challenge is great for him to keep scoring freely as he is now.”

WASHINGTON , Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA Deputy Administrator Pam Melroy and Nicola Fox , associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, will travel to Mexico City on Sunday, Nov. 24 , for a multi-day trip to build on previous engagements and advance scientific and technological collaboration between the United States and Mexico . Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.Eddie Howe says ‘a lot more to come’ from Newcastle striker Alexander Isak

Roblox, More Than Just a Game The gaming giant Roblox has long been celebrated for its innovative platform, allowing users to both design and play games. This success, however, has also been mirrored on the financial markets where its stock price becomes a focal point for investors and gamers alike. As Roblox expands its technological horizons, what lies ahead for its market valuation? Technological Integration and Market Shifts Roblox’s stock performance has been closely observed, showcasing bouts of volatility but maintaining long-term potential. With the company diving deep into emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and the metaverse, the impact on its financial prospects is significant. These technological advancements are not only expected to enhance the user experience but also to drive major growth in digital economies, captivating investor interest. The Metaverse: A Financial Frontier The concept of the metaverse is rapidly transforming from science fiction to reality, and Roblox stands at its forefront. The integration of this new virtual realm promises increased user engagement, potentially leading to higher revenues. As the company pushes forward with these initiatives, its stock price may reflect growing optimism from both consumers and investors about Roblox’s future. Risks and Opportunities While the potential for technological breakthroughs offers exciting opportunities, investors must also stay wary of risks such as market competition and technological setbacks. Yet, with a robust strategic vision and an evolving technological landscape, Roblox aims to redefine its role and valuation in the gaming and financial world. Roblox’s Tech Evolution: Future Financial Prospects and Market Impact Roblox, a powerhouse in the gaming industry, continues to blaze a trail with its innovative approach, offering users the dual thrill of game creation and play. As its technological ambitions broaden, critical analysis of its market valuation and future prospects grows increasingly important. Let’s delve deeper into Roblox’s technological strides, market strategies, and emerging trends shaping its financial landscape. Roblox’s exploration of virtual reality (VR) and the metaverse signifies a strategic leap to blend gaming with immersive digital experiences. This transition is projected to reshape digital economies, elevating Roblox’s appeal in the eyes of investors and gamers alike. The adaptation of VR can enhance the user experience, potentially leading to increased engagement and monetization options, thereby positively affecting stock performance. Recent trends suggest that while Roblox’s stock exhibits volatility, it remains poised for long-term growth. This is due, in part, to the company’s active pursuit of technological integration which is likely to appeal to forward-thinking investors. The market reaction to Roblox’s initiatives in the metaverse could set a precedent for similar platforms, establishing a benchmark for valuation within this evolving digital landscape. Roblox’s development pipeline is infused with innovation aimed at enriching user interaction. This includes enhancements to its game development tools, allowing creators more flexibility and efficiency in design. As an early pioneer in user-generated content within gaming, Roblox continually seeks to refine these tools, offering creators even more powerful options to craft compelling experiences. As the platform scales, Roblox remains dedicated to ensuring the security of its user base, especially given its significant youth demographic. Investments in robust security measures and adherence to data privacy standards are crucial. Additionally, sustainability is being woven into its corporate ethos, with Roblox considering eco-friendly practices in its data centers and operational choices. The horizon for Roblox is marked by potential exponential growth as it aligns with technological trends such as the metaverse. Analysts predict that continued innovation and strategic partnerships could expand its market penetration and profitability. For those interested in a deeper dive into Roblox’s innovations, exploring the company’s main website could provide further insights into its strategic direction and upcoming projects. With its ongoing evolution, Roblox is more than just a game; it is a dynamic force poised to redefine the digital frontier for both players and investors.

Hawkins recertified as ACT Work Ready CommunityHerbert tosses 3 TD passes and Chargers secure a playoff spot with a 40-7 rout of Patriots FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) — Justin Herbert threw three touchdown passes and the Los Angeles Chargers clinched their second playoff appearance in three seasons with a 40-7 victory over the New England Patriots. The win also secured the fourth postseason appearance in Jim Harbaugh’s five seasons as an NFL coach, adding to the three he made during his stint with tAshe San Francisco 49ers. Herbert finished 26 of 38 for 281 yards to become the third player in NFL history with at least 3,000 passing yards and 20 touchdown passes in each of his first five seasons. The Patriots have lost six straight games, their second such losing streak of the season. They are now 2-14 the last two seasons at home. Dallas' Naji Marshall gets 4-game suspension, Phoenix's Jusuf Nurkic is banned 3 games for fight The NBA has suspended Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall for four games and Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic for three games for their roles in an on-court fight during Friday night’s game. Dallas forward P.J. Washington was suspended for one game. All of the suspensions are without pay. Nurkic was called for an offensive foul while being guarded by Daniel Gafford with 9:02 left in the third quarter before the altercation quickly escalated. Nurkic confronted Marshall before taking an open-handed swing at his head and then Marshall responded with a punch. Washington quickly shoved Nurkic to the ground before the teams were separated. The NBA said Marshall “attempted to further engage Nurkic in a hostile manner in the corridor outside the locker rooms.” Shohei Ohtani to become a father for the 1st time in 2025 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Shohei Ohtani is adding a newcomer to his family lineup. The Los Angeles Dodgers superstar has posted on his Instagram account that he and wife Mamiko Tanaka are expecting a baby in 2025. The photo shows the couple's beloved dog, Decoy, as well as a pink ruffled onesie along with baby shoes and a sonogram that is covered by a baby emoji. Ohtani announced in February that he had married Tanaka, a former professional basketball player from his native Japan. The news from the intensely private player stunned Ohtani's teammates and his fans. Eli Manning and Antonio Gates are among the finalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Two-time Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning, former Defensive Players of the Year Luke Kuechly and Terrell Suggs, and prolific tight end Antonio Gates are among the finalists for the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame class. The Hall on Saturday announced the names of the 15 modern-era finalists who advanced from a group of 25 to the final stage of voting. The selection committee will vote next month to pick the class of between three and five modern-era players that will be announced the week of the Super Bowl. Georgia QB Carson Beck announces plan to enter NFL draft after season-ending elbow injury Georgia quarterback Carson Beck has announced his plans to enter the NFL draft, five days after having season-ending elbow surgery. The fifth-year senior made his NFL plans official on social media. Beck suffered a right elbow injury in the first half of the Bulldogs’ 22-19 overtime win over Texas in the Southeastern Conference championship game on Dec. 7. Beck had surgery on Monday to repair his ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow. He is expected to begin throwing next spring. Backup Gunner Stockton will make his first start in the Sugar Bowl against Notre Dame on Wednesday. Victor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New York Victor Wembanyama went to a park in New York City and played 1-on-1 with fans on Saturday. He even lost a couple of games. Not in basketball, though. Wemby was playing chess. Before the San Antonio Spurs left New York for a flight to Minnesota, Wembanyama put out the call on social media: “Who wants to meet me at the SW corner of Washington Square park to play chess? Im there,” Wembanyama wrote. It was 9:36 a.m. And people began showing up almost immediately. Mavs star Luka Doncic is latest pro athlete whose home was burglarized, business manager says DALLAS (AP) — Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks is the latest professional athlete whose home has been burglarized. The star guard’s business manager tells multiple media outlets there was a break-in at Doncic’s home Friday night. Lara Beth Seager says nobody was home, and Doncic filed a police report. The Dallas Morning News reports that jewelry valued at about $30,000 was stolen. Doncic is the sixth known pro athlete in the U.S. whose home was burglarized since October. Star NFL quarterbacks Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City and Joe Burrow of Cincinnati are among them. The NFL and NBA have issued security alerts to players over the break-ins. Panthers place 1,000-yard rusher Chuba Hubbard on IR for final 2 games with strained calf CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Carolina Panthers have shut down leading rusher Chuba Hubbard for the final two games of the season because of a strained calf. He was placed on injured reserve Saturday. Hubbard was limited in practice Friday with a knee injury and was listed as questionable to play Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After practice, Hubbard complained of pain and had an MRI, which revealed a grade two calf strain, according to the team. Hubbard ran for 1,195 yards and 10 touchdowns this season. He becomes the third Panthers running back to be placed on injured reserve this season, joining Miles Sanders and rookie Jonathan Brooks. Corbin Burnes and Arizona Diamondbacks agree to $210 million, 6-year deal, AP source says PHOENIX (AP) — Corbin Burnes and the Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a $210 million, six-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press. The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because the deal was pending a successful physical. The 30-year-old Burnes was perhaps the top free agent pitcher on the market after going 15-9 with a 2.92 ERA for Baltimore last season. The Orioles acquired the right-hander in a February trade after he spent his first six major league seasons with the Milwaukee Brewers. Miami's Cam Ward sets NCAA's Division I record with 156th career touchdown pass ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Cam Ward has made NCAA history in his final college game. The Miami quarterback has thrown a record-setting 156th touchdown pass of his college career, connecting with Jacolby George for a 4-yard score with 4:12 left in the first quarter of the Pop-Tarts Bowl. That’s the Division I — FBS and FCS — record, one more than Houston’s Case Keenum threw for from 2007 through 2011.

Mufti Mohammad Kased, the unrecognised martyrMaura Higgins strips down to a bikini for a jungle bubble bath as she’s hailed ‘next I’m A Celeb winner’

Cardano (ADA), Rexas Finance (RXS) to Outperform XRP in 2025, Warns Investor Who Predicted Ripple’s $2.84 Local PeakNEW YORK (AP) — Richard Parsons, one of corporate America's most prominent Black executives who held top posts at Time Warner and Citigroup, died Thursday. He was 76. Parsons, who died at his Manhattan home, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2015 and cited “unanticipated complications” from the disease for cutting back on work a few years later. The financial services company Lazard, where Parsons was a longtime board member, confirmed his death. Parsons’ friend Ronald Lauder told The New York Times that the cause of death was cancer. Parsons stepped down Dec. 3 from the boards of Lazard and Lauder’s company, Estée Lauder, citing health reasons. He had been on Estée Lauder’s board for 25 years. “Dick was an American original, a colossus bestriding the worlds of business, media, culture, philanthropy, and beyond,” Ronald Lauder said in a statement on behalf of the Lauder family. David Zaslav, the CEO of Time Warner successor Warner Bros. Discovery, hailed Parsons as a “great mentor and friend” and a “tough and brilliant negotiator, always looking to create something where both sides win.” “All who got a chance to work with him and know him saw that unusual combination of great leadership with integrity and kindness,” Zaslav said, calling him “one of the great problem solvers this industry has ever seen.” Parsons, a Brooklyn native who started college at 16, built a track record of steering big companies through tough times. He returned Citigroup to profitability after turmoil from the global financial crisis and helped restore Time Warner after its much-maligned acquisition by internet provider America Online. Parsons was named to the board of CBS in September 2018 but resigned a month later because of illness. Parsons said in a statement at the time that he was already dealing with multiple myeloma when he joined the board, but “unanticipated complications have created additional new challenges.” He said his doctors advised him to cut back on his commitments to ensure recovery. “Dick’s storied career embodied the finest traditions of American business leadership,” Lazard said in a statement. The company, where Parsons was a board member from 2012 until this month, praised his “unmistakable intelligence and his irresistible warmth.” “Dick was more than an iconic leader in Lazard’s history — he was a testament to how wisdom, warmth, and unwavering judgment could shape not just companies, but people’s lives,” the company said. “His legacy lives on in the countless leaders he counseled, the institutions he renewed, and the doors he opened for others.” Parsons was known as a skilled negotiator, a diplomat and a crisis manager. Although he was with Time Warner through its difficulties with AOL, he earned respect for the company and rebuilt its relations with Wall Street. He streamlined Time Warner’s structure, pared debt and sold Warner Music Group and a book publishing division. He also fended off a challenge from activist investor Carl Icahn in 2006 to break up the company and helped Time Warner reach settlements with investors and regulators over questionable accounting practices at AOL. Parsons joined Time Warner as president in 1995 after serving as chairman and chief executive of Dime Bancorp Inc., one of the largest U.S. thrift institutions. In 2001, after AOL used its fortunes as the leading provider of Internet access in the U.S. to buy Time Warner for $106 billion in stock, Parsons became co-chief operating officer with AOL executive Robert Pittman. In that role, he was in charge of the company’s content businesses, including movie studios and recorded music. He became CEO in 2002 with the retirement of Gerald Levin, one of the key architects of that merger. Parsons was named Time Warner chairman the following year, replacing AOL founder Steve Case, who had also championed the combination. The newly formed company’s Internet division quickly became a drag on Time Warner. The promised synergies between traditional and new media never materialized. AOL began seeing a reduction in subscribers in 2002 as Americans replaced dial-up connections with broadband from cable TV and phone companies. Parsons stepped down as CEO in 2007 and as chairman in 2008. A year later AOL split from Time Warner and began trading as a separate company, following years of struggles to reinvent itself as a business focused on advertising and content. A board member of Citigroup and its predecessor, Citibank, since 1996, Parsons was named chairman in 2009 at a time of turmoil for the financial institution. Citigroup had suffered five straight quarters of losses and received $45 billion in government aid. Its board had been criticized for allowing the bank to invest so heavily in the risky housing market. Citigroup returned to profit under Parsons, starting in 2010, and would not have a quarterly loss again until the fourth quarter of 2017. Parsons retired from that job in 2012. In 2014 he stepped in as interim CEO of the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers until Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took over later that year. “Dick Parsons was a brilliant and transformational leader and a giant of the media industry who led with integrity and never shied away from a challenge,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said. Parsons, a Republican, previously worked as a lawyer for Nelson Rockefeller, a former Republican governor of New York, and in Gerald Ford’s White House. Those early stints gave him grounding in politics and negotiations. He also was an economic adviser on President Barack Obama’s transition team. Parsons, whose love of jazz led to co-owning a Harlem jazz club, also served as Chairman of the Apollo Theater and the Jazz Foundation of America. And he held positions on the boards of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, the American Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Parsons played basketball at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and received his law degree from Albany Law School in 1971. He is survived by his wife, Laura, and their family. This obituary was primarily written by the late Associated Press reporter Anick Jesdanun, who died in 2020 .

Macao SAR at 25: Celebrating success and looking ahead

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Travellers flying to or from the UK have faced further disruptions as thick fog and low visibility restricted air traffic on one of the year's busiest weekends. or signup to continue reading Gatwick Airport in London warned that some flights may be delayed throughout Saturday and apologised for the inconvenience. Flights were delayed by up to three hours on Friday because of poor weather conditions, and at least 40 flights from the airport, mostly short-haul to Europe, were delayed on Saturday morning. Heathrow Airport, one of Europe's busiest, advised passengers to check with their airlines regarding potential delays. Disruptions were also reported at other UK airports including Stansted Airport in London and Manchester Airport. The UK's weather forecasters, the Met Office, said thick fog patches could reduce visibility to just 100m in some areas across Britain. It said travellers should allow "a little bit longer" for journeys and warned drivers to be extra careful. Kiera Quayle and her husband, who were visiting family for Christmas on the Isle of Man, were among many affected. Their return flight to London was delayed by hours and then cancelled late Friday. "It's frustrating and stressful but I overheard a few families who are now missing holidays and work who have it worse at this point," she said. Conditions are expected to improve on Sunday, the Met Office said. Britain's main air traffic control organisation said the restrictions would remain in place in areas with low visibility. The restrictions came at a busy time of year when many people travel following the Christmas holiday and ahead of the New Year. DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. Close to the ground. Digging deep. Your weekday morning newsletter on national affairs, politics and more. TWICE WEEKLY Your essential national news digest: all the big issues on Wednesday and great reading every Saturday. WEEKLY Get news, reviews and expert insights every Thursday from CarExpert, ACM's exclusive motoring partner. TWICE WEEKLY Get real, Australia! Let the ACM network's editors and journalists bring you news and views from all over. AS IT HAPPENS Be the first to know when news breaks. DAILY Your digital replica of Today's Paper. Ready to read from 5am! DAILY Test your skills with interactive crosswords, sudoku & trivia. Fresh daily! Advertisement AdvertisementVictor Wembanyama plays 1-on-1 chess with fans in New York

 

y-jesus

2025-01-10
Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. ODFL today reported certain less-than-truckload ("LTL") operating metrics for November 2024. Revenue per day decreased 8.2% as compared to November 2023 due to an 8.0% decrease in LTL tons per day and a slight decrease in LTL revenue per hundredweight. The decrease in LTL tons per day was attributable to a 6.8% decrease in LTL shipments per day and a 1.2% decrease in LTL weight per shipment. For the quarter-to-date period, LTL revenue per hundredweight decreased 1.2% as compared to the same period last year and LTL revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharges, increased 3.7% as compared to the same period last year. Marty Freeman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Old Dominion, commented, "Our revenue results for November reflect the continued softness in the domestic economy as well as the impact of lower fuel surcharge revenue on our yields. While our LTL volumes declined on a year-over-year basis in November, the improvement in our revenue per hundredweight, excluding fuel surcharges, demonstrates our continued commitment to yield management. We have achieved consistent, cost-based increases in our yield metrics, excluding fuel surcharges, by remaining committed to providing our customers with superior service at a fair price. As we continue to deliver on these core elements of our long-term strategic plan, we remain confident in our ability to win market share and increase shareholder value over the long term." Forward-looking statements in this news release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution the reader that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to be materially different from those expressed or implied herein, including, but not limited to, the following: (1) the challenges associated with executing our growth strategy, and developing, marketing and consistently delivering high-quality services that meet customer expectations; (2) changes in our relationships with significant customers; (3) our exposure to claims related to cargo loss and damage, property damage, personal injury, workers' compensation and healthcare, increased self-insured retention or deductible levels or premiums for excess coverage, and claims in excess of insured coverage levels; (4) reductions in the available supply or increases in the cost of equipment and parts; (5) various economic factors such as inflationary pressures or downturns in the domestic economy, and our inability to sufficiently increase our customer rates to offset the increase in our costs; (6) higher costs for or limited availability of suitable real estate; (7) the availability and cost of third-party transportation used to supplement our workforce and equipment needs; (8) fluctuations in the availability and price of diesel fuel and our ability to collect fuel surcharges, as well as the effectiveness of those fuel surcharges in mitigating the impact of fluctuating prices for diesel fuel and other petroleum-based products; (9) seasonal trends in the less-than-truckload ("LTL") industry, harsh weather conditions and disasters; (10) the availability and cost of capital for our significant ongoing cash requirements; (11) decreases in demand for, and the value of, used equipment; (12) our ability to successfully consummate and integrate acquisitions; (13) various risks arising from our international business relationships; (14) the costs and potential adverse impact of compliance with anti-terrorism measures on our business; (15) the competitive environment with respect to our industry, including pricing pressures; (16) our customers' and suppliers' businesses may be impacted by various economic factors such as recessions, inflation, downturns in the economy, global uncertainty and instability, changes in international trade policies, changes in U.S. social, political, and regulatory conditions or a disruption of financial markets; (17) the negative impact of any unionization, or the passage of legislation or regulations that could facilitate unionization, of our employees; (18) increases in the cost of employee compensation and benefit packages used to address general labor market challenges and to attract or retain qualified employees, including drivers and maintenance technicians; (19) our ability to retain our key employees and continue to effectively execute our succession plan; (20) potential costs and liabilities associated with cyber incidents and other risks with respect to our information technology systems or those of our third-party service providers, including system failure, security breach, disruption by malware or ransomware or other damage; (21) the failure to adapt to new technologies implemented by our competitors in the LTL and transportation industry, which could negatively affect our ability to compete; (22) the failure to keep pace with developments in technology, any disruption to our technology infrastructure, or failures of essential services upon which our technology platforms rely, which could cause us to incur costs or result in a loss of business; (23) disruption in the operational and technical services (including software as a service) provided to us by third parties, which could result in operational delays and/or increased costs; (24) the Compliance, Safety, Accountability initiative of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ("FMCSA"), which could adversely impact our ability to hire qualified drivers, meet our growth projections and maintain our customer relationships; (25) the costs and potential adverse impact of compliance with, or violations of, current and future rules issued by the Department of Transportation, the FMCSA and other regulatory agencies; (26) the costs and potential liabilities related to compliance with, or violations of, existing or future governmental laws and regulations, including environmental laws; (27) the effects of legal, regulatory or market responses to climate change concerns; (28) emissions-control and fuel efficiency regulations that could substantially increase operating expenses; (29) expectations relating to environmental, social and governance considerations and related reporting obligations; (30) the increase in costs associated with healthcare and other mandated benefits; (31) the costs and potential liabilities related to legal proceedings and claims, governmental inquiries, notices and investigations; (32) the impact of changes in tax laws, rates, guidance and interpretations; (33) the concentration of our stock ownership with the Congdon family; (34) the ability or the failure to declare future cash dividends; (35) fluctuations in the amount and frequency of our stock repurchases; (36) volatility in the market value of our common stock; (37) the impact of certain provisions in our articles of incorporation, bylaws, and Virginia law that could discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of us or a change in our management; and (38) other risks and uncertainties described in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the SEC. Our forward-looking statements are based upon our beliefs and assumptions using information available at the time the statements are made. We caution the reader not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements as (i) these statements are neither a prediction nor a guarantee of future events or circumstances and (ii) the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and projections about future events may differ materially from actual results. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement to reflect developments occurring after the statement is made, except as otherwise required by law. Old Dominion Freight Line, Inc. is one of the largest North American LTL motor carriers and provides regional, inter-regional and national LTL services through a single integrated, union-free organization. Our service offerings, which include expedited transportation, are provided through an expansive network of service centers located throughout the continental United States. The Company also maintains strategic alliances with other carriers to provide LTL services throughout North America. In addition to its core LTL services, the Company offers a range of value-added services including container drayage, truckload brokerage and supply chain consulting. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241203903746/en/ © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.90 jilibet

AP Signs 2 MoUs With Tony Blair Institute To Modernise Higher Education

MONACO - Canadians Alex Tessier, Sophie de Goede and Laetitia Royer have been named to World Rugby’s Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year. Canada sevens captain Olivia Apps, meanwhile, was selected to World Rugby’s Women’s Sevens Dream Team. The women’s 15s world all-star squad also featured six players from top-ranked England and three from No. 2 New Zealand. The other three came from the U.S., Ireland and France. Tessier was also a finalist for the World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year award won by England fullbackEllie Kildunne.France’s Pauline Bourdon Sansus and England’s Alex Matthews were the other finalists. Tessier won her 50th cap in 2024 and, playing at inside centre alongside fly half Claire Gallagher, led the Canada women to a historic first-ever victory over New Zealand to win the 2024 Pacific Four Series in May. The 22-19 comeback victory lifted Canada into second place in the women’s world rankings, its highest position since November 2016. Tessier’s strong kicking game was also key for Canada. The 31-year-old from Sainte-Clotilde-de-Horton, Que., scored 27 points in starting all six matches for Canada in 2024 to up her career total to 48 points (including five tries) in 54 appearances. Tessier plays professionally in England for the Exeter Chiefs. De Goede made the all-star team despite tearing her anterior cruciate ligament in training in June. A finalist for the Women’s Player of the Year award in 2022, the Victoria back-rower plays in England for Saracens. Royer, from Loretteville, Que., is a second-row forward who plays in France for ASM Romagnat. Top-ranked South Africa dominated the men’s 15s all-star squad with seven players represented. Ireland had four players with New Zealand three and Argentina one. —- World Rugby’s 15s Dream Teams of the Year Women 1. Hope Rogers (U.S.); 2. Georgia Ponsonby (New Zealand); 3. Maud Muir (England); 4. Zoe Aldcroft (England); 5. Laetitia Royer (Canada); 6. Aoife Wafer (Ireland)’ 7. Sophie de Goede (Canada); 8. Alex Matthews (England); 9. Pauline Bourdon Sansus (France); 10. Holly Aitchison (England); 11. Katelyn Vahaakolo (New Zealand); 12. Alex Tessier (Canada); 13. Sylvia Brunt (New Zealand); 14. Abby Dow (England); 15. Ellie Kildunne (England). Men 1. Ox Nche (South Africa); 2. Malcolm Marx (South Africa); 3. Tyrel Lomax (New Zealand); 4. Eben Etzebeth (South Africa); 5. Tadhg Beirne (Ireland); 6. Pablo Matera (Argentina); 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit (South Africa); 8. Caelan Doris (Ireland); 9. Jamison Gibson-Park (Ireland); 10. Damian McKenzie (New Zealand); 11. James Lowe (Ireland); 12. Damian de Allende (South Africa); 13. Jesse Kriel (South Africa); 14. Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa); 15. Will Jordan (New Zealand). World Rugby Sevens Dreams Team of the Year Women Olivia Apps (Canada), Michaela Blyde (New Zealand), Kristi Kirshe (U.S.), Maddison Levi (Australia), Ilona Maher (U.S.), Jorja Miller (New Zealand), Séraphine Okemba (France). Men Selvyn Davids (South Africa), Antoine Dupont (France), Aaron Grandidier Nkanang (France), Terry Kennedy (Ireland), Nathan Lawson (Australia), Ponipate Loganimasi (Fiji), Matías Osadczuk (Argentina). This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 27, 2024.

Friends, colleagues remember former state Rep. Mary Murphy

I was reading in the Star-Ledger that Russia attacked Ukraine on Christmas Day with a large barrage of missiles, damaging Ukraine’s power grid and a thermal power plant. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the subsequent war, started almost three years ago. Not coincidentally, President Joe Biden had been in office for just over a year. He then boasted that the economic sanctions that he was imposing upon Russia would cripple them. This appears to be just another failure of Biden’s administration. Campaigning in the 2020 election, he said that Vladimir Putin knew better than to mess with him. Well, we see where that has gone. It’s gone the failure route of Biden’s economic policy, his border policy, etc. Biden’s faux tough-guy demeanor has fooled no one, especially the international community. Yes, now it’s time to turn the page. Here’s hoping for international peace at least for the next four years. Greg McLaughlin, Belle Mead The wolf, the sheep, and the value of victims To paraphrase George Orwell, in this “Animal Farm” — the one called America — all animals are created equal but, as bitter experience has taught us, some animals are more equal than others. A case in point is the extraordinary lengths to which authorities went tracking down the alleged killer of insurance executive Brian Thompson, in essence, a “wolf” who made money for his company by denying the “sheep” access to life-saving medical care. There were hundreds of cops on the case, extensive use of surveillance cameras to track suspect Luigi Mangione’s movements, high-level press conferences, front-page headlines, and ultimately, simultaneous state and federal charges leveled against him. Then, we see a minor writeup: “ N.J. man sentenced man to 15 years for beating 18-year-old man to death in city street,” about an aggravated manslaughter case from 2020 in Paterson. The 40-year-old man was convicted last year of beating his victim — one of the “sheep” — Nicolas Reyes, for 11 long minutes. For this, the killer, Tyheem Jones, recently received a 15-year sentence. That’s fewer than the number of years his victim lived. And, Jones will be eligible for parole after serving 85% of the sentence, less than 13 years. So much attention is given to the wolf, while the sheep’s life is treated as if it were nothing. If only the sheep realized how vastly they outnumber the wolves. John Woodmaska, Kearny Star-Ledger needs self-examination The Star-Ledger’s Jerry Izenberg is a swell guy and a terrific sports columnist. But, his recent piece, “The crazy story of an N.J. college that never existed...,” about a prank involving phoning in phony football scores to newspaper sports departments many years ago, lacked awareness and class. The article repeatedly mocked The New York Times for falling victim to the scam by publishing the fake score, but never acknowledging the error. One could fill a book with examples of how The Star-Ledger has become a pathetic relic of a real newspaper, but I’ll cite just one from the Dec. 26 print sports section: The story on the New York Knicks’ annual Christmas Day basketball game at Madison Square Garden was sourced from the Associated Press wire service. Apparently, Manhattan is too distant a destination for a Star-Ledger sportswriter. So, before the Star-Ledger publishes columns that mock other newspapers, maybe it should look at its own. Ed Marks, Millburn They’re still gaga for Gaetz Concerning former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., whose conduct a just-released House ethics committee report strongly criticized: Although he had won re-election, Gaetz resigned from Congress in mid-November, after he was forced to withdraw as President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for attorney general. It should be of interest that on Election Day, 66% of the voters in his district voted for him over a Democratic challenger. Either these voters didn’t know about Gaetz’s behavior, or they didn’t care about it. What does this say about the state of politics? Carl Singer, Passaic Our journalism needs your support. Please subscribe today to NJ.com The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion . Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion . Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion . Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters

By LOLITA BALDOR and FATIMA HUSSEIN 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. Trump made the announcement on his Truth Social account, and said “He was with me right from the beginning! Together, we will secure PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, and Make America, and the World, SAFE AGAIN!” Kellogg, an 80 year-old retired Army lieutenant general who has long been Trump’s top adviser on defense issues, served as national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence , was chief of staff of the National Security Council and then stepped in as an acting security adviser for Trump after Michael Flynn resigned. As special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Kellogg will have to navigate an increasingly untenable war between the two nations. The Biden administration has begun urging Ukraine to quickly increase the size of its military by drafting more troops and revamping its mobilization laws to allow for the conscription of troops as young as 18. The White House has pushed more than $56 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s February 2022 invasion and expects to send billions more to Kyiv before Biden leaves office in less than months. Trump has criticized the billions that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine. Washington has recently stepped up weapons shipments and has forgiven billions in loans provided to Kyiv. The incoming Republican president has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies. As a co-chairman of the American First Policy Institute’s Center for American Security, Kellogg wrote several of the chapters in the group’s policy book. The book, like the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” is a move to lay out a Trump national security agenda and avoid the mistakes of 2016 when he entered the White House largely unprepared. Kellogg in April wrote that “bringing the Russia-Ukraine war to a close will require strong, America First leadership to deliver a peace deal and immediately end the hostilities between the two warring parties.” Trump’s proposed national security advisor U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) tweeted Wednesday that “Keith has dedicated his life to defending our great country and is committed to bringing the war in Ukraine to a peaceful resolution.” Kellogg was a character in multiple Trump investigations dating to his first term. He was among the administration officials who listened in on the July 2019 call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy in which Trump prodded his Ukrainian counterpart to pursue investigations into the Bidens. The call, which Kellogg would later say did not raise any concerns on his end, was at the center of the first of two House impeachment cases against Trump, who was acquitted by the Senate both times. On Jan. 6, 2021, hours before pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, Kellogg, who was then Pence’s national security adviser, listened in on a heated call in which Trump told his vice president to object or delay the certification in Congress of President Joe Biden ’s victory. He later told House investigators that he recalled Trump saying to Pence words to the effect of: “You’re not tough enough to make the call.” Baldor reported from Washington. AP writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.Chicago's top 10 news stories of 2024

The Maharashtra Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2024, is based on the Model Prisons Bill, 2023, sent by the Centre to the states, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the House. Nagpur: The Maharashtra legislative assembly here on Friday passed a bill seeking to reform the prison system in the state. The Maharashtra Prisons and Correctional Services Act, 2024, is based on the Model Prisons Bill, 2023, sent by the Centre to the states, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis told the House. A high-security prison and detention centre will be set up in Mumbai, while a new prison being built in Pune will be a two-storey facility, he added. A plot of land has been finalised for the new prison in Mumbai, the CM said. As many as 1,600 accused who have got bail continue to stay in prison in the state for the lack of money to pay for bail bond, he informed. The bill provides for categories of prisons such as special prison, open prison for women, temporary prison and open colony. Open prisons and open colonies will help with rehabilitation and reintegration of former jail inmates after their release, Fadnavis said. The bill also provides for the constitution of a `prison and correctional prison force’. A welfare fund for prison staff and another fund for the welfare of prisoners is also an important feature of the legislation, the CM said. It also provides for better segregation of various categories of prisoners and their special needs as women, transgenders, under-trial prisoners, convicts, high-risk prisoners and habitual offenders. The bill also makes provisions for a grievance-redressal mechanism for prisoners, after-care rehabilitation service, and a separate women’s ward in prison hospitals. An undertrial review committee will be set up in every district for periodical review of all undertrial prisoners and to take measures for speedy disposal of cases and make appropriate recommendations to trial courts. Technology including biometrics, closed-circuit television (CCTV), scanning and detection services, Radio Frequency Identification and video conference facilities will be used for effective management and supritendence of prisons and to ensure the safety of inmates, the CM said. The entire prison administration will be computerized, the chief minister said. Congress MLA Nana Patole and Sanjay Kute (BJP) said prison reforms should not lead to a situation where criminals would like to remain in jail. There should be no lavishness, they said. Fadnavis assured that there would be no “five-star facility”, adding that the reforms aim to protect human rights of jail inmates. Kute said social health will be affected if criminals get lavish treatment in jail. Aaditya Thackeray (Shiv Sena UBT) said artificial intelligence should be used to create digital footprint of prisoners so that care can be taken after a prisoner walks out of the jail. Fadnavis said the use of AI for this purpose will take time. Sana Malik (NCP) said the right to health is part of the right to life. Mumbai’s Arthur Road Jail has the capacity to accommodate 804 inmates but some 3,000 prisoners are lodged there, she claimed. Fadnavis conceded that the number of doctors available is small in view of the number of prison inmates. “We will focus on reducing the number of undertrials,” the chief minister said. Click for more latest India news . Also get top headlines and latest news from India and around the world at News9.

NoneArista Networks (NYSE:ANET) Stock Price Down 2.3% – What’s Next?