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Abandoned mines in the US pose dangers to people and property when land gives way

Liverpool boss Arne Slot hailed “special” Mohamed Salah after seeing him fire the Premier League leaders to the brink of victory at Newcastle. The Reds ultimately left St James’ Park with only a point after Fabian Schar snatched a 3-3 draw at the end of a pulsating encounter, but Salah’s double – his 14th and 15th goals of the season – transformed a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 lead before the Switzerland defender’s late intervention. The 32-year-old Egypt international’s future at Anfield remains a topic of debate with his current contract running down. Asked about Salah’s future, Slot said: “It’s difficult for me to predict the long-term future, but the only thing I can expect or predict is that he is in a very good place at the moment. Two goals and an assist for Mo tonight 👏 pic.twitter.com/tMXidgeA0P — Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 4, 2024 “He plays in a very good team that provides him with good opportunities and then he is able to do special things. “And what makes him for me even more special is that in the first hour or before we scored to make it 1-1, you thought, ‘He’s not playing his best game today’, and to then come up with a half-hour or 45 minutes – I don’t know how long it was – afterwards with an assist, two goals, having a shot on the bar, being a constant threat, that is something not many players can do if they’ve played the first hour like he did. “That is also what makes him special. If you just look at the goals, his finish is so clinical. He’s a special player, but that’s what we all know.” Salah did indeed endure a quiet opening 45 minutes by his standards and it was the Magpies who went in at the break a goal to the good after Alexander Isak’s stunning 35th-minute finish. Slot said: “The shot from Isak, I don’t even know if Caoimh (keeper Caoimhin Kelleher) saw that ball, as hard as it was.” Salah set up Curtis Jones to level five minutes into the second half and after Anthony Gordon has restored the hosts’ lead, levelled himself from substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 68th-minute cross. He looked to have won it with a fine turn and finish – his ninth goal in seven league games – seven minutes from time, only for Schar to pounce from a tight angle in the 90th minute. Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe was delighted with the way his team took the game to the Reds four days after their disappointing 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace. Howe, who admitted his surprise that VAR official Stuart Attwell had not taken a dimmer view of a Virgil van Dijk shoulder barge on Gordon, said: “It’s mixed emotions. “Part of me feels we should have won it – a big part of me – but part of me is pleased we didn’t lose either because it was such a late goal for us. “Generally, I’m just pleased with the performance. There was much more attacking output, a much better feel about the team. “There was much better energy, and it was a really good performance against, for me, the best team we’ve played so far this season in the Premier League, so it was a big jump forward for us.”PHOENIX — A federal judge said Thursday he is ready to reject a claim by the Arizona Republican Party chair that the secretary of state is illegally failing to clean up voter registration rolls. In a new court filing, Judge Dominic Lanza acknowledged that party chair Gina Swoboda and two Republican allies are claiming there are at least 500,000 people registered to vote in the state who have moved or are dead. Their attorney said that violates the National Voter Registration Act. But the judge, in a 17-page draft order, said that even if what they claim is true — and he does not address that issue — none have shown they are in any way harmed by what Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has or has not done. “A citizen does not have standing to challenge a government regulation because the plaintiff believes that the government is acting illegally,’’ Lanza wrote. “Nor may citizens sue merely because their legal objection is accompanied by a strong moral, ideological, or policy objection to a government action.’’ The judge specifically rejected their claims that having all those extra people on the rolls somehow dilutes the votes of the challengers. He called that assertion “impermissibly speculative.’’ Strictly speaking, what Lanza issued Thursday is not the last word. The judge said he will give the challengers’ attorney a chance to argue in open court next month that he is wrong. But the judge made it clear he has reached a conclusion and said he would entertain oral arguments solely “to address any perceived errors in the court’s tentative analysis.’’ Arizona GOP chair Gina Swoboda There was no immediate response from attorney Andrew Gould, who filed the case. The heart of the claim is that 14 of 15 Arizona counties have voter registration rates that Gould called “implausibly high.’’ He claimed there are more registered voters — both active and inactive — than there are residents who are 18 or older. All the counties with the exception of Greenlee have registration rates between 80% and 99%. By contrast, he said, data from the U.S. Census Bureau puts the average figure nationally at 69.1%. Citing the same data, Gould said the expected registration rate for Arizona should be 69.9% “Based on even the most conservative data sources, Arizona has at least 500,000 registered voters on the voter rolls who should have otherwise been removed,’’ he said. In fact, Gould argued, the figure could be as high as 1.27 million. That is out of more than 4.6 million active registered voters and another about 708,000 inactive voters. The latter category includes people for whom there is evidence they have moved. The National Voter Registration Act requires the state to send out a forwardable notice to the last known address to find out if the person is still eligible. In the meantime, he is put onto a list of “inactive’’ voters. Still, anyone on that list can cast a ballot by coming in and providing proof of residence. But if there is no response and the person does not vote for two election cycles, the law says they have to be removed from the rolls entirely. Swoboda sued along with two others involved in GOP politics: Scot Mussi, president of the Republican-aligned Free Enterprise Club, and Steven Gaynor, who made an unsuccessful run as a Republican for secretary of state in 2018 and was briefly in the 2022 gubernatorial race before withdrawing. They asked the judge to order Fontes to “develop and implement additional reasonable and effective registration list-maintenance programs.’’ Gould said his clients have a right to sue to ensure the voter rolls are as clean as possible. “Because the secretary does not maintain accurate voter rolls, ineligible voters have an opportunity to vote in Arizona elections, risking the dilution of plaintiffs’ legitimate votes,’’ the lawsuit states. But Gould provided no examples of people casting ballots who did not have the right. It didn’t matter. Lanza said even if Fontes was not maintaining the voter registration lists as required by federal law, that doesn’t mean it would result in the voters of others being diluted. “Such dilution could result only after: (1) an ineligible voter requests an early ballot at a polling place; (2) casts a ballot; (3) that ineligible ballot is tabulated; and (4) sufficient other ineligible voters engage in the same series of steps in a number sufficient to ‘dilute’ plaintiffs’ votes,’’ the judge said. That’s a “long chain of hypothetical contingencies’’ that do not rise to the level of providing a basis to sue, Lanza said. The judge was no more impressed by the challengers’ alternate legal theory that Fontes’ alleged failure to comply with what federal law requires undermines their “confidence’’ in the election system. “Plaintiffs effectively ask the court to find that their fear of vote dilution — which they allege, erodes their confidence in the electoral process and discourages their participation — is an injury that is independent from the actual vote dilution they separately identify as one of their injuries,’’ Lanza wrote. For the same reason Lanza said the vote dilution claim can’t stand, he said this theory is no better, and that they were “repackaging their fear of vote dilution ... as an independent injury.’’ Their self-proclaimed fear alone of what might happen is legally insufficient to form the basis for this lawsuit, he said. “Plaintiffs cannot manufacture standing merely by inflicting harm on themselves based on their fears of hypothetical future harm that is not certainly impending,’’ Lanza wrote. Finally, the judge rejected claims by challengers that less-than-accurate voter registration rolls mean they have to spend more money on things like voter education and monitoring elections for fraud and abuse. He called these “vague claims that a policy hampers its mission.’’ Howard Fischer is a veteran journalist who has been reporting since 1970 and covering state politics and the Legislature since 1982. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bluesky , and Threads at @azcapmedia or email azcapmedia@gmail.com . Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.None

In Pennsylvania alone, coal was mined in nearly half of the state’s 67 counties and there are at least 5,000 abandoned underground mines, leaving behind hazards that officials say can arise at any time.Manitoba Legislature gets festive makeover for annual Holiday Open House

The questions are becoming deeper, more philosophical and they’re looking ahead to next season. That’s a sad state of affairs considering what the 49ers accomplished last year and the fact that we haven’t even had Thanksgiving yet. But it’s to be expected after the team’s dull performance in Green Bay. Advertisement Thanks for the truly great questions, which have been slightly modified for clarity. Most of you know where to find me on X. I’m also on Bluesky — @mattbarrows — and I took some of the questions from there, from X and from the comments section of recent stories. Why Brandon Allen and not Joshua Dobbs ? – JT S. That’s a question I’m sure Dobbs is asking as well. Earlier this season he told The Chronicle’s Eric Branch that he thought he’d earned the No. 2 role coming out of training camp and the preseason. This is how I’d characterize it: Dobbs looked rough when training camp began, missing even short, easy throws. But that’s what you should expect from newcomers at the start of training camp. You’d expect a rookie offensive lineman, for example, to get whupped in his first few one-on-one blocking matchups. If that lineman is still getting beaten handily in late August, it’s a problem. But good players improve as time goes on. That’s what Dobbs did. To his credit, he didn’t try to be careful. He tried to be aggressive. I thought he pushed the ball down the field more than Allen and was certainly a better runner. I thought he was the better — or maybe the right description is, the more promising — quarterback by the time the preseason ended. The 49ers, obviously, didn’t see it that way. They liked Allen’s experience in the system, which not only included a 49ers backup role in 2023 but having played in a similar offense in Los Angeles and Cincinnati. And we don’t know what happened behind closed doors: It very well could be that when Kyle Shanahan, Brian Griese, et al. examined the practice tape, they concluded that Allen simply was making better decisions than Dobbs. And though the 49ers *said* there was a competition for the No. 2 job in training camp, Allen always was the second quarterback to get repetitions in practice. Without fail. It was a watch-what-we-do situation. They said there was a competition, but they never really conducted practices like there was a true competition. Advertisement Having said all that, Allen was far from the sole reason the 49ers lost on Sunday. Was he shaky to start out? Absolutely. Should he have put on longer cleats? You betcha. But from the second quarter onward, he was 16 of 28 for 190 yards with a touchdown and an interception. The interception was due to one of Deebo Samuel ’s two drops in that span. Eliminate those drops and Allen has at least a 100 passer rating in the game. GO DEEPER 49ers minutia minute: Brock Purdy passes first test; Dre Greenlaw's window opens Obviously injuries have been problem Nos. 1, 2, and 3 for the offense. But it also feels like Shanahan has been a step behind defensive schemes this season. Does he take some time this off season to reimagine things? Bring in a true OC? Or just run it back and hope for better luck next year? – Nathan W. Bring in an OC? Surely, you jest, sir! If Shanahan heard you ask that, he’d remove a white glove from his breast pocket and strike you across the face. But I do agree that his vaunted offense hasn’t had answers for some of the things defenses are throwing at the 49ers this year. At the top of the list is the uptick in man coverage. I’ll be writing more about this in the future, but the bottom line is that defenses aren’t intimidated by the 49ers’ receivers and are playing more aggressive man coverage as a result. If Brandon Aiyuk returns to full strength, maybe this is a moot point. He’s their best man-coverage beater. But Aiyuk wasn’t as good at that this season as he was in season’s past – do you think it had anything to do with his five-month contract holdout? – and will be coming off an ACL tear when the 2025 regular season begins. If I’m the 49ers, being better prepared for man coverage is high on my offseason to-do list. I’m really puzzled. Why doesn’t Shanahan use Jordan Mason and Ricky Pearsall more? – Rick R. I asked Shanahan about Mason – and wrote about it – last week. Pearsall? He’s playing a lot. He was in on 67 percent of the snaps Sunday, the same as Samuel. The 49ers quarterbacks just haven’t targeted him the last two weeks. Advertisement Samuel is dead weight. Can the 49ers release him after the season? What’s the situation with his contract? – Tsundoku S. According to Over the Cap, If he’s traded or released before June 1, the 49ers would incur a $31.5M dead cap hit, which is about $15.6 million more than his slated 2025 cap hit of nearly $16 million. So cries of “Trade Deebo!” don’t make much sense. So if you hear anyone say, “Trade Deebo!”, remove your white glove and whap them across the cheek. If they waited until after June 1 — or released him earlier with a post-June 1 designation — they would save $5.2 million against the 2025 cap and spread the $31.5 million hit over two seasons. He’d count for $10.7 million against the cap in 2025 and $20.8 million in 2026. Very carefully, with sterile gloves, you addressed Allen’s left hand injury without mentioning the splint he was wearing on his middle finger. Sir, what’s the deal? – Luis A.A. You are a careful reader and there is a distinct glove theme to this mailbag. The splint — and the fact that the digit is broken — were surprises. As I noted in the most recent Minutia Minute , Allen appeared on the practice participation report in the run-up to the Nov. 10 game in Tampa. I asked Allen about it that Friday and he sloughed it off, saying it happened on an errant snap and that it was no big deal. The following week, he not only wasn’t on the practice participation report, he’d ceased wearing any protection on the finger and was practicing in full. So it seemed like a non-issue for two weeks until – voila! – he had a bulky, black brace on the finger against the Packers . Since Deommodore Lenoir got his extension early, do you have any indications that John Lynch is trying harder than ever to have extensions signed before free agency or the draft? – Dan B. No, I don’t have any indication of that. But I know that it would behoove them to get a Brock Purdy extension completed shortly after the season ends. (The 49ers can begin to negotiate after their season ends. They don’t have to wait until the league year ends in March). Two other players will be interesting to watch. Dre Greenlaw and Talanoa Hufanga are both scheduled to be free agents in March. You have to wonder, however, if their recent injuries will dampen their markets and whether the 49ers might be able to re-sign them to short-term, maybe one-year, deals. Hufanga has the additional obstacle of playing a position, safety, that seems to always have a soft market. Greenlaw may have a month’s worth of games to prove to the league that he is indeed back to being himself after his Achilles tear. It’s still unclear whether Hufanga (wrist) will be back this season. GO DEEPER 49ers, Deommodore Lenoir agree to 5-year, $92 million extension Looking at the division, this season isn’t over. Do you have any faith based on performances so far that the team can make a push for the division title? – Matt A. Here’s how I look at it: The 49ers needed to be ultra-sharp — the best version of themselves — at the start of the game in Green Bay. Instead, they could barely stay on their feet. A Herculean effort, possibly in the snow, in Buffalo, would change my mind. But Sunday’s performance made me more skeptical than I’ve been all season. The 49ers knew they had to reach down deep to win in Green Bay. When they did they came out with a fist full of nothing. Austin Mock, who handles our playoff odds, is similarly skeptical. At one point, his odds for the 49ers making the playoffs were 90 percent. Now his graph looks like a Blockbuster stock report from the early 2000s. Is there a reserve/practice squad offensive lineman that you think can contribute next season? With Jake Brendel and Colton McKivitz being subpar and Aaron Banks being a free agent, it seems like the o-line has room for new faces. – Mario M. One of the issues is that teams keep poaching the 49ers’ developmental linemen — Keith Ismael , Ilm Manning and, most recently, draft pick Jarrett Kingston . There’s one offensive lineman, a center, on the practice squad who has promise, Drake Nugent . He’s squattier than the ideal center – a bit over 6-1 – but has longer arms, 33 inches, than you’d expect. Advertisement Here’s what offensive line coach Chris Foerster said about Nugent in the summer: “We got to the week before the draft, we started looking at the guys that we thought were going to be drafted sixth, seventh or not be drafted at all. He fits our style. He is the more undersized, quick guy that plays with a lot of leverage and things like that, that may not be big enough. May not quite be the prototypical starter guy. But he does have some of those traits that we really like, and he fits our system really well. That’s what we saw. Even though Michigan really didn’t highlight the outside zone at all. PFF has this thing where they categorize the play by outside, inside, and gap scheme. They had, like, 17 outside zones the whole season, and they ran the crap out of the ball. So it was hard (to evaluate). But you had to look at his testing, and we did like him a lot. Really good kid.” If there are changes to the defensive coaching staff, do you foresee the Niners reevaluating their defensive philosophy as a whole? Perhaps pursuing someone from the Mike Macdonald or Brian Flores tree? – Taylor H. No, I see them pursuing the guy they really wanted this year, Jeff Ulbrich. Do you think the lack of big moves by the 49ers front office in the trade deadline was because they kinda knew this was coming? – Lucas T. I don’t know. Heading into the trade deadline, my thought was: What happens if Nick Bosa or Leonard Floyd has to miss a game? What will the 49ers do at defensive end? Now we know the answer: Play Sam Okuayinonu on 62 percent of the snaps. (For the record, I like Okuayinonu and think he’s worth developing. But relying on him in a must-win game like Sunday’s was too much to ask). (Top photo of Josh Dobbs: Stacy Revere/Getty Images)Osun 2026: Adeleke, Oyetola, Aregbesola Flex Muscles Over Bola Ige House

Photos: Notre Dame Cathedral reopens, with its first service since a devastating fireA 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook a large area of Northern California on Thursday, knocking items off grocery store shelves, sending children scrambling under desks and prompting a brief for 5.3 million people along the U.S. West Coast. The quake struck at 10:44 a.m. west of Ferndale, a small city in coastal Humboldt County, about 130 miles (209 km) from the Oregon border, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It was felt as far south as San Francisco, some 270 miles (435 km) away, where residents felt a rolling motion for several seconds. It was followed by multiple smaller aftershocks. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injury. The tsunami warning was in effect for roughly an hour. It was issued shortly after the temblor struck and covered nearly 500 miles (805 km) of coastline, from the edge of California’s Monterey Bay north into Oregon. “It was a strong quake, our building shook, we’re fine but I have a mess to clean up right now,” said Julie Kreitzer, owner of Golden Gait Mercantile, a store packed with food, wares and souvenirs that is a main attraction in Ferndale. “We lost a lot of stuff. It’s probably worse than two years ago. I have to go, I have to try and salvage something for the holidays because it’s going to be a tough year,” Kreitzer said before hanging up. The region — known for its redwood forests, scenic mountains and the three-county Emerald Triangle’s — was struck by that left thousands of people without power and water. The northwest corner of California is the most seismically active part of the state since it’s where three tectonic plates meet, seismologist Lucy Jones said on the social media platform BlueSky. Shortly after the quake, phones in Northern California buzzed with the tsunami warning from the National Weather Service that said: “A series of powerful waves and strong currents may impact coasts near you. You are in danger. Get away from coastal waters. Move to high ground or inland now. Keep away from the coast until local officials say it is safe to return.” Numerous cities urged people to evacuate to higher ground as a precaution, including Eureka. In Santa Cruz, authorities cleared the main beach, taping off entrances with police tape. Aerial footage showed cars bumper-to-bumper heading to higher ground Thursday morning on California highways 1 and 92 in the Half Moon Bay area south of San Francisco. “I thought my axles had fallen apart,” said Valerie Starkey, a Del Norte County supervisor representing Crescent City, a town of fewer than 6,000 near the Oregon border. “That’s what I was feeling ... ‘My axles are broken now.’ I did not realize it was an earthquake.” Cindy Vosburg, the executive director for the Crescent City-Del Norte County Chamber of Commerce, said she heard alarms sound just before shaking began and the city’s cultural center downtown started to creak. “The earthquake seemed to go on for quite a few seconds. It was a rolling earthquake,” Vosburg said. “Just as it would start to subside, the building would roll again.” Vosburg, a former resident of the San Francisco Bay Area and the Central Valley, said it was the strongest earthquake she felt since the struck Northern California. Gov. Gavin Newsom said he has signed off on a state of emergency declaration to quickly move state resources to impacted areas along the coast. State officials were concerned about damages in the northern part of the state, Newsom said. White House Spokesperson Jeremy Edwards said President Joe Biden was briefed on the earthquake and that FEMA officials are in touch with their state and local counterparts in California and Oregon. Crews in Eureka, the biggest city in the region, were assessing if there was any major damage from the quake, Eureka Mayor Kim Bergel said. Bergel, who works as a resource aid at a middle school, said lights were swaying and everyone got under desks. “The kids were so great and terrified. It seemed to go back and forth for quite a long time,” she said. Some children asked, “Can I call my mom?” The students were later sent home. In nearby Arcata, students and faculty were urged to shelter in place at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. The campus in was not in the tsunami hazard zone and after inspections, “all utilities and building systems are normal and operational,” the university said in a statement. Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal said residents experienced some cracks in their homes’ foundations, as well as broken glass and windows, but nothing severe. There also have been no major infrastructure problems, building collapses or roadway issues, and no major injuries or deaths have been reported, he said. Honsal said he was in his office in the 75-year-old courthouse in downtown Eureka when he felt the quake. “We’re used to it. It is known as ‘earthquake country’ up here,” he said. “It wasn’t a sharp jolt. It was a slow roller, but significant.” Michael Luna, owner of a Grocery Outlet in Eureka, said that besides a few items falling off shelves, the store on Commercial Street was unscathed by the earthquake. “We didn’t have any issues but a couple of deodorants fall off.... I think the way the earthquake rumbled this time, it was a good thing for our store because the last earthquake was a huge mess,” he said. They evacuated customers and closed their doors temporarily until officials lifted the tsunami warning, he said, rushing off the phone to attend to a growing line of customers at check-out. The San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, stopped traffic in all directions through the underwater tunnel between San Francisco and Oakland, and the San Francisco Zoo’s visitors were evacuated. Dave Snider, tsunami warning coordinator for the Tsunami Warning Center in Alaska, said the computer models indicated that this was the type of earthquake that was unlikely to cause a tsunami and gauges that monitor waves then confirmed it, so forecasters canceled the warning. This quake was a strike-slip type of temblor that shifts more horizontally and is less prone to cause tsunamis, unlike the more vertical types, said National Weather Service tsunami program manager Corina Allen in Washington state. The California Geological Survey says the state’s shores have been struck by more than 150 tsunamis since 1800, and while most were minor, some have been destructive and deadly. On March 28, 1964, a tsunami triggered by a powerful earthquake in Alaska smashed into Crescent City hours later. Much of the business district was leveled and a dozen people were killed. More recently, a tsunami from a 2011 earthquake in Japan caused about $100 million in damages along the California coast, much of it in Crescent City.TORONTO (AP) — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night. The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.” Several city streets had been closed during the day for the annual Santa Claus parade. The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2. The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation. It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time. In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena. AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

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Former President Jimmy Carter has died at the age of 100. The 39th president of the United States was a Georgia peanut farmer who sought to restore trust in government when he assumed the presidency in 1977 and then built a reputation for tireless work as a humanitarian. He earned a Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. He died Sunday, more than a year after entering hospice care, at his home in Plains, Georgia. At age 52, Carter was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 1977, after defeating President Gerald R. Ford in the 1976 general election. Carter left office on Jan. 20, 1981, following his 1980 general election loss to Ronald Reagan. Here's the latest: The longest-lived American president died 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. “Our founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, passed away this afternoon in Plains, Georgia,” The Carter 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. In his 1975 book “Why Not The Best,” Carter said of himself: “I am a Southerner and an American, I am a farmer, an engineer, a father and husband, a Christian, a politician and former governor, a planner, a businessman, a nuclear physicist, a naval officer, a canoeist, and among other things a lover of Bob Dylan’s songs and Dylan Thomas’s poetry.” 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. After he left office and returned home to his tiny hometown of Plains in southwest Georgia, Carter regularly taught Sunday School lessons at Maranatha Baptist Church until his mobility declined. Those sessions drew visitors from around the world. Former Vice President Al Gore praised Jimmy Carter for living “a life full of purpose, commitment and kindness” and for being a “lifelong role model for the entire environmental movement.” Carter, who left the White House in 1981 after a landslide defeat to Ronald Reagan. concentrated on conflict resolution, defending democracy and fighting disease in the developing world. Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, remains a leading advocate for action to fight climate change. Both won Nobel Peace Prizes. Gore said that “it is a testament to his unyielding determination to help build a more just and peaceful world” that Carter is often “remembered equally for the work he did as President as he is for his leadership over the 42 years after he left office.” During Gore’s time in the White House, President Bill Clinton had an uneasy relationship with Carter. But Gore said he is “grateful” for “many years of friendship and collaboration” with Carter. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, remember Carter as a man who lived to serve others. “Hillary and I mourn the passing of President Jimmy Carter and give thanks for his long, good life. Guided by his faith, President Carter lived to serve others — until the very end." The statement recalled Carter's many achievements and priorities, including efforts “to protect our natural resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, make energy conservation a national priority, return the Panama Canal to Panama, and secure peace between Egypt and Israel at Camp David." After he left office, the Clinton statement said, Carter continued efforts in "supporting honest elections, advancing peace, combating disease, and promoting democracy; to his and Rosalynn’s devotion and hard work at Habitat for Humanity — he worked tirelessly for a better, fairer world,” the statement said.Football notebook: Gold Ball droughts end in state championship games

Raiders and Saints meet with prominent players nearing statistical milestonesFrench President Emmanuel Macron’s office has announced a new government, after the previous Cabinet collapsed in a historic vote prompted by fighting over the country’s budget. Newly named Prime Minister Francois Bayrou put together the government that includes members of the outgoing conservative-dominated team and some new figures from centrist or left-leaning backgrounds. Advertisement Coming up with a 2025 budget will be the most urgent order of business. French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027 (AP) The new government enters office after months of political deadlock and pressure from financial markets to reduce France’s colossal debt. Advertisement Mr Macron has vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027, but has struggled to govern since snap elections in the summer left no single party with a majority in the National Assembly. Since his appointment 10 days ago, Mr Bayrou has held talks with political leaders from various parties in search of the right balance for the new government. Some critics were angry at Mr Bayrou for consulting with Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, and some argue the government looks too much like the old one to win the trust of politicians. Former prime minister Michel Barnier resigned this month following a no-confidence vote prompted by budget disputes in the National Assembly, leaving France without a functioning government. Advertisement Ms Le Pen played a key role in Mr Barnier’s downfall by joining her National Rally party’s forces with the left to pass the no-confidence motion. Mr Bayrou will need support from moderate legislators on the right and left to keep his government alive. Alexis Kohler, secretary-general of the Elysee Palace, announces the names of the new Cabinet ministers (Saboor Abdul/pool via AP) Advertisement Banker Eric Lombard will be finance minister, a crucial post when France is working to fulfil its promises to European Union partners to reduce its deficit, estimated to reach 6% of its gross domestic product this year. Mr Lombard briefly worked as an adviser to a socialist finance minister in the 1990s. Mr Bayrou has said he supports tax hikes championed by his predecessor, but it is not clear how the new government can find the right calculation for a budget that satisfies a majority of politicians angry over spending cuts. Bruno Retailleau stays on as interior minister, with responsibility for France’s security and migration policy. Advertisement Sebastien Lecornu, who has been at the forefront of France’s military support for Ukraine, remains defence minister, while foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot, who has travelled extensively in the Middle East in recent weeks, also retains his post. Among the new faces are two former prime ministers. Manuel Valls will be minister for overseas affairs, and Elisabeth Borne takes the education ministry.

UConn coach Jim Mora gets extension through 2028

Georgia has had more time than Notre Dame to prepare for their College Football Playoff quarterfinal game in the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night in New Orleans. And that will come in handy for a team turning to an inexperienced quarterback with the season on the line. Sophomore Gunner Stockton will start for the No. 2-seeded Bulldogs (11-2) against the No. 7-seeded Fighting Irish (12-1) after Carson Beck underwent season-ending surgery to repair an elbow injury suffered in the second quarter of the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 7. Stockton replaced Beck and completed 12 of 16 passes for 71 yards with an interception in Georgia's 22-19 overtime win against Texas. The victory solidified a playoff bye and extra preparation time for the Bulldogs, though they didn't know their opponent until almost two weeks later when Notre Dame advanced with a 27-17 first-round playoff victory against Indiana on Dec. 20 in South Bend, Ind. Georgia coach Kirby Smart said the extra time helped Stockton by giving him added reps with the first team, though the Bulldogs' game preparation was limited until they knew their opponent. "I think the biggest thing (for Stockton) is just competition and practice, the situations we put him in," Smart said. "All those things allow him to get better as a quarterback." Stockton has completed 25 of 32 passes for 206 yards and no touchdowns this season, with one interception. Freshman Nate Frazier leads the running game with 634 yards and eight TDs on 129 carries. Irish coach Marcus Freeman said he and his staff have "80-something plays" of Stockton to study. "He can run their offense," Freeman said. "He does things a little bit differently. He can extend plays with his legs; he's a good athlete. The thing I probably noticed most about him, he's an ultra-competitive individual." Smart downplayed the possibility that Stockton's running ability will lead to much difference in the Bulldogs' game plan. "We are who we are," Smart said. The flip side to the break between games is that Georgia will have had the equivalent of 3 1/2 byes while Notre Dame stayed sharp by winning its 11th consecutive game. "It's really just hard to manage how you keep your players in football shape and game shape," Smart said. "Do you lose some rhythm? You watch it most times in bowl games, people that have those long breaks, it can affect how you play." Notre Dame, like fellow first-round winners Penn State, Ohio State and Texas, is adjusting to playing back-to-back postseason games as part of the 12-team CFP. "Obviously, this is a first for me," Freeman said. "You almost prepared for this first round like it was maybe even a bowl game-ish-type opportunity. But then you realize once the game was over, you get back to preparation. ... "In the playoffs, you've got to prepare in a way that gives your program the best opportunity to win. Put everything on the table and then, if you're able to get the outcome you want, you've got to go right back to preparation." The Irish will go through the rest of the season without defensive tackle Rylie Mills because of a knee injury he suffered against Indiana. "The value (Mills) provided this team is tremendous," Freeman said. "And he's done an excellent job as a football player and a leader. "You've got to replace what he did for our defense in different ways. We have capable guys that will step up, that have stepped up all year that we're very confident in." Mills had 7 1/2 sacks this season, and he and preseason All-American Howard Cross III helped the defense overcome the loss of another preseason All-American, cornerback Benjamin Morrison, who sustained a season-ending hip injury in October. Cross missed the final three regular-season games because of a high ankle sprain but returned against Indiana. On offense, Notre Dame's Riley Leonard has thrown for 2,293 yards and 17 touchdowns against six interceptions, and Jeremiyah Love averages 7.4 yards per carry, posting 1,057 rushing yards and 16 TDs on 142 attempts. --Field Level Media

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — An elaborate parody appears to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the Houston-based energy company that exemplified the worst in American corporate fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001. If its return is comedic, some former employees who lost everything in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing. “It’s a pretty sick joke and it disparages the people that did work there. And why would you want to even bring it back up again?” said former Enron employee Diana Peters, who represented workers in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Here’s what to know about the history of Enron and the purported effort to bring it back. Once the nation’s seventh-largest company, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions of dollars in debt or make failing ventures appear profitable. The energy company’s collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work, wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions and rendered $60 billion in Enron stock worthless. Its aftershocks were felt throughout the energy sector. Twenty-four Enron executives , including former CEO Jeffrey Skilling , were eventually convicted for their roles in the fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay’s convictions were vacated after he died of heart disease following his 2006 trial. On Monday — the 23rd anniversary of the bankruptcy filing — a company representing itself as Enron announced in a news release that it was relaunching as a “company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis.” It also posted a video on social media, advertised on at least one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle In the minute-long video that was full of generic corporate jargon, the company talks about “growth” and “rebirth.” It ends with the words, “We’re back. Can we talk?” Enron’s new website features a company store, where various items featuring the brand’s tilted “E” logo are for sale, including a $118 hoodie. In an email, company spokesperson Will Chabot said the new Enron was not doing any interviews yet, but that “We’ll have more to share soon.” Signs point to the comeback being a joke. In the “terms of use and conditions of sale” on the company’s website, it says “the information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.” Documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show that College Company, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of College Company is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy theory that claims all birds are actually surveillance drones for the government. Peters said that since learning about the “relaunch” of Enron, she has spoken with several other former employees and they are also upset by it. She said the apparent stunt was “in poor taste.” “If it’s a joke, it’s rude, extremely rude. And I hope that they realize it and apologize to all of the Enron employees,” Peters said. Peters, who is 74 years old, said she is still working in information technology because “I lost everything in Enron, and so my Social Security doesn’t always take care of things I need done.” “Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” she said. Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at https://x.com/juanlozano70SOUTHAMPTON, England (AP) — West Ham goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski is “alert” and conscious after being taken off the field on a stretcher during the team's 1-0 win at Southampton in the Premier League on Thursday, manager Julen Lopetegui said. The game was delayed for around eight minutes as Fabianski received treatment on the field at St Mary's Stadium. The 39-year-old Polish goalkeeper was hurt in a collision from a corner and was replaced by Alphonse Areola in the 36th minute. Southampton 'keeper Aaron Ramsdale had run the length of the field to check on Fabianski amid worrying scenes. Fabianski was then greeted by applause as he was taken off with an oxygen mask on, but did not need to go to the hospital. “He had one big knock around the head, around the neck and he was not very sure about his actions. Fortunately the news is he is talking, he is alert, he is conscious,” Lopetegui said. “I talk with him. The doctors say that he feels better and well. I am positive with him. He showed he more or less recovered his sense. I am not afraid. We feared but now he is better and it is a positive feeling because we were very worried.” West Ham, which also saw defender Max Kilman go off in the first half, scored through Jarrod Bowen in the 59th. ___ AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer The Associated Press

Unyielding Connectivity: Optical-Fibre Triumph at SiachenHowever, the N-Dubz star has since left the jungle following a public vote but viewers of the show are shocked at her actions since. Before heading into the Australian jungle, celebrities often share pictures of themselves in their camp uniforms and the ITV show also videos and images of them while they’re in there which they share to their own personal accounts. However, viewers noticed the lack of Instagram posts about Tulisa’s time in the jungle following her exit. Taking to X, formerly Twitter, fans of the show noticed the singer has deleted her posts about the ITV show and her involvement. After leaving the show, Tulisa would’ve been given her phone back so it’s likely she deleted the posts herself. One viewer said: “Why has Tulisa deleted everything from her socials in relation to #ImACeleb”. Another commented: “Why has Tulisa deleted all traces of I’m a celeb off her socials?” A third called the singer out, saying: “So grateful you delete all trace of I’m a Celeb on your Instagram ey Tulisa?” After public votes, three celebrities have been eliminated from the ITV show so far. Loose Women star Jane Moore was the first to leave while Dean McCullough, a BBC Radio 1 presenter, was the second to be reunited with loved ones. N-Dubz star Tulisa was the third to leave the jungle and said: “It is tough in there, leaving is still a happy thing.” Speaking about her I'm A Celebrity experience, she added: “I just think you're more grateful for everything, the food you eat, being around the people you love, the home comforts, just makes you very appreciative of life.” Tonight (December 3), another celebrity will leave the jungle.PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — The United Nations raised the death toll of a recent massacre in which dozens of older people and Vodou religious leaders were killed by a gang in Haiti, and called on officials to bring the perpetrators to justice. The U.N. Integrated Office in Haiti said in a report published on Monday that between Dec. 6 and 11 more than 207 people were killed by the Wharf Jeremie gang. The gang took people from their homes and from a place of worship, interrogated them and then executed them with bullets and machetes. Earlier this month, human rights groups in Haiti had estimated that more than 100 people were killed in the massacre, but the new U.N. investigation doubles the number of victims. “We cannot pretend that nothing happened” said María Isabel Salvador, the U.N. secretary-general’s special representative in Haiti. “I call on the Haitian justice system to thoroughly investigate these horrific crimes and arrest and punish the perpetrators, as well as those who support them," she said in a statement. Human rights groups in Haiti said the massacre began after the son of Micanor Altès, the leader of the Wharf Jeremie gang, died from an illness. The Cooperative for Peace and Development, a human rights group, said that according to information circulating in the community, Altès accused people in the neighborhood of causing his son’s illness. “He decided to cruelly punish all elderly people and (Vodou) practitioners who, in his imagination, would be capable of casting a bad spell on his son,” the group said in a statement released shortly after news of the massacre emerged. In Monday's report, the United Nations said that people were tracked down in their homes and in a place of worship by Altès’ gang, where they were first interrogated and then taken to an execution site. The United Nations said that the gang tried to erase evidence of the killings by burning bodies, or by dismembering them and throwing them into the sea. The massacre is the latest humanitarian tragedy in Haiti, where gang violence has intensified since the nation’s president was killed in a 2021 coup attempt . Haiti has struggled to organize an election that will fill the power vacuum and restore democratic rule. The Caribbean nation is currently governed by a transitional council that includes representatives from the business community, civil society and political parties, but its government has no control over many areas of the capital city, and gangs are constantly fighting over ports, highways and neighborhoods. According to the United Nations, more than 5,350 people have been killed in Haiti’s gang wars this year. The Haitian government acknowledged the massacre against older people in a statement issued earlier this month, and promised to persecute those responsible for this act of “unspeakable carnage.”

The resolution creating the committee focused in particular on Willis’ hiring of special prosecutor Nathan Wade, with whom she had a romantic relationship, to lead the prosecution against Trump and others.

Breaking into new market like PH

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox . Months before voters went to the polls in November, a group of election skeptics based in North Carolina gathered on a call and discussed what actions to take if they doubted any of the results. One of the ideas they floated: try to get the courts or state election board to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots cast by voters whose registrations are missing a driver’s license number and the last four digits of a Social Security number. But that idea was resisted by two activists on the call, including the leader of the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network. The data was missing not because voters had done something wrong but largely as a result of an administrative error by the state. The leader said the idea was “voter suppression” and “100%” certain to fail in the courts, according to a recording of the July call obtained by ProPublica. This novel theory is now at the center of a legal challenge by North Carolina appeals court Judge Jefferson Griffin, a Republican who lost a race for a state Supreme Court seat to the Democratic incumbent, Allison Riggs, by just 734 votes and is seeking to have the result overturned. The state election board dismissed a previous version of the challenge , which is now being considered in federal court . Before the election, a Trump-appointed judge denied an attempt by the Republican National Committee to remove 225,000 voters from the rolls based on the same theory. The latest case is getting attention statewide and across the country. But it has not yet been reported that members of the group that had helped publicize the idea had cast doubt on its legality. “I don’t comment on pending litigation,” Griffin wrote to ProPublica in response to a detailed list of questions. “It would be a violation of our code of judicial conduct.” Embry Owen, Riggs’ campaign manager, disputed the challenge and called on Griffin to concede. “It’s not appropriate for this election to be decided in court, period. NC voters have already made the decision to send Justice Riggs back to the Supreme Court,” she said. The theory Griffin is citing originated with a right-wing activist, Carol Snow, who described herself to ProPublica in an email as “a Bona Fide Grade-A Election Denier.” Snow promoted it with the help of the state chapter of the Election Integrity Network, a national group whose leader worked with President Donald Trump in his failed effort to overturn the 2020 election. The network also was behind extensive efforts to prepare to contest a Trump loss this year in other states, as ProPublica has reported , as well as in North Carolina, according to previously unreported recordings and transcripts of meetings of the state chapter. State election officials have found that missing information on a voter’s registration is not disqualifying because there are numerous valid reasons for the state’s database to lack that those details. Those reasons include voters registering before state paperwork was updated about a year ago to require that information or using alternate approved documents, such as a utility bill, to verify their identities. What’s more, voters must still prove their identity when casting a ballot — most often with a driver’s license. “There is virtually no chance of voter fraud resulting from a voter not providing her driver’s license or social security number on her voter registration,” attorneys for the state election board wrote in response to the RNC lawsuit. Bob Orr, a former GOP state Supreme Court justice who left the Republican Party in 2021 , said he too doubts the theory. “I appreciate fighting for every vote: If you honestly think illegal votes have been cast, it’s legitimate to try to prove that,” he said. “But the bottom line is: Did anyone vote illegally? Have you been able to prove one person voted illegally? At this point, no. And we’re weeks past the election and multiple recounts, and there’s no evidence of that.” In modern history, the state board’s decision on who wins elections has been final, said Chris Cooper, a professor specializing in North Carolina politics at Western Carolina University. That includes an even tighter race in 2020, when a Democratic justice conceded to a Republican after protesting her 401-vote loss to the board. “We’re used to close elections, we’re used to protests, we’re used to candidates pushing every legal action up to the point the state election board rules,” Cooper said. But, he added, there is an important difference with Griffin’s petition, which goes beyond the state election board to the courts. “This is basically saying the state elections system is wrong, and we’re going to court to try to change the rules of the game after the game has been played — which is unprecedented.” In July 2024, the North Carolina chapter of the Election Integrity Network convened online to plan its efforts ahead of the presidential election. Worried about a surge of voter registrations from nonwhite voters who they believed would back Democrats, the activists discussed how to assemble a “suspicious voters list” of people whose ballots they could challenge. Then, one of the group’s board members, Jay DeLancy, said he had another idea “that’s a lot slicker.” DeLancy said that if a candidate lost a close election, the loss could be overturned by questioning the validity of voters whose registrations are missing their driver’s license and Social Security information. “Those are illegal votes,” he claimed. “I would file a protest.” Jim Womack, the leader of the chapter, immediately pushed back: “That’s a records keeping problem on the part of the state board. That’s not illegal.” Later in the call Womack said, “I’m 100% sure you’re not going to get a successful prosecution.” And he told the group, “That’s considered to be voter suppression, and there’s no way a court is going to find that way.” But DeLancy asked for backup from the originator of that theory: Carol Snow. She argued that her theory could in fact overturn the outcome of an election. “I guess we’re gonna find that out,” Snow said. Snow is a leader of the conservative activist group North Carolina Audit Force and lives in the state’s rural mountains. After Trump’s loss in 2020, she threw herself into questioning the election’s results. In 2022, she accompanied a pair of far-right activists to a North Carolina election office where the two men unsuccessfully tried to forcefully access voting machines, and she participated in a failed pressure campaign to oust the election director who resisted them, ProPublica previously reported . She also began filing overwhelming numbers of records requests and complaints to state election officials, an effort that Womack praised on the July call: “I think Carol has shown a way of really harassing — not that we want to do it for harassment purposes — but really needling the Board of Elections to do their jobs by just constantly deluging them.” Since late 2021, the state elections board had spent far more time on her requests and complaints than those of any other individual, spokesperson Patrick Gannon said in a statement. “Ms. Snow’s constant barrage of requests and complaints causes other priorities and responsibilities to suffer,” Gannon said. Snow described her work to ProPublica as “simply taking the time to learn about my state’s electoral process” and acting for the public good. “The records I’ve requested are owned by the public. In other words, I’m asking for what belongs to me,” Snow wrote to ProPublica . “If government agencies are understaffed and unable to comply with this state’s Public Records law, they should address the issue with the entities that fund them.” In the fall of 2023, Snow filed a complaint alleging that North Carolina’s voter registration form did not clearly require voters to provide their driver’s license number and the last four digits of their Social Security number, as required by federal law — instead that information was coded as optional. Snow later described the missing information as a “ line of attack ” through which bad actors could cast fraudulent votes using fake identities. (A right-wing conspiracy theory holds that this was how Biden won the 2020 election.) But she was not able to demonstrate that the missing information had led to anyone improperly voting. After obtaining public records for hundreds of thousands of voter registrations, Snow provided the state board with only seven examples of what she called potential double voting. The state board found all seven to be innocuous things like data entry errors . The state board quickly updated the form to require the information. But from late 2023 through the fall of 2024, six complaints , some of which were partly based on Snow’s theory, were filed with the state election board. Aside from the updates to the form, the state board dismissed the complaints. By the time of the July call, some of Snow’s peers seemed dismissive as well. “I’m not suggesting that we can’t arm a candidate that loses a short, a close race with the information they need to file a protest using this,” Womack said on the call. “But I would just suggest to you that that’s not the way to win on this thing.” Yet the information did end up in the Republican National Committee’s lawsuit trying to disqualify 225,000 voters, a challenge DeLancy filed against Riggs’ victory in North Carolina’s most populous county, and, the day after that was dismissed, Griffin’s challenge to over 60,000 voters. DeLancy wrote to ProPublica that he filed the challenge on his own and did not coordinate with Griffin. He also said he disagreed with Womack’s description of such challenges as “voter suppression.” Instead, he said, he saw it as “a proper response” to the state election board’s “violation of federal law.” “Carol Snow deserves an Order of the Long Leaf Pine for exposing this treasonous behavior on the part of the election officials,” he wrote, referring to an award bestowed by North Carolina’s governor . Womack wrote to ProPublica that the group he leads “is a non-partisan, neutral organization” that does “not favor one party over another.” He also said that recordings of the group’s calls are “prohibited and violate our internal policies” and “whatever bootleg recording you may have is unauthorized and may well be altered.” ProPublica has seen a video recording of the call and verified portions of it with some participants. Though Griffin’s challenge of Riggs’ victory is now being considered in federal court, legal experts say it could still end up back where he intended: in front of the state Supreme Court. Griffin’s petition is making what experts describe as extreme asks to the Supreme Court: to allow him to bypass the lower courts, to allow ballots to be thrown out without proving that voters did anything knowingly wrong and to essentially decide whether to change its composition to six Republicans and one Democrat. “Even if they do their best to be open-minded and independent, the facts of the potential conflicts of interest are just too obvious to the public,” said Orr, the former Republican justice. Griffin has described Republican Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby as a “good friend and mentor,” and Newby promoted Griffin’s 2020 run for the court of appeals. What’s more, a ProPublica review of campaign finance reports show that the spouses of three justices, including Newby’s wife, donated over $12,000 to Griffin’s most recent or previous campaigns. (The husband of the Supreme Court’s other Democratic justice donated to Riggs.) Newby and other justices did not respond to a detailed list of questions sent to spokespeople for the Supreme Court. When announcing his candidacy for the Supreme Court , Griffin declared, “We are a team that knows how to win — the same team that helped elect Chief Justice Paul Newby and three other members of the current Republican majority.” A cartoon illustration that hangs in the Supreme Court depicts all the Republican appellate jurists as superheroes from the Justice League, with Newby caricatured as Superman and Griffin as the Flash.

Romanian lawmakers narrowly approves new pro-European coalition during period of political turmoil

Matt Gaetz's Wife Stood by Him Throughout Ethics Committee Probe

THE HAGUE (AP) — The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in Gaza. The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny. The action by the International Criminal Court came as the death toll from Israel’s campaign in Gaza passed 44,000 people, according to local health authorities, who say more than half of those killed were women and children. Their count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Experts say hunger has become widespread across Gaza and may have reached famine levels in the north of the territory, which is under siege by Israeli troops. Israel says it has been working hard to improve entry of aid, though the trickle of supplies into Gaza remains near the lowest levels of the war. Netanyahu condemned the warrant against him, saying Israel “rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions” by the court. In a statement released by his office, he said: “There is nothing more just than the war that Israel has been waging in Gaza.” Gallant, in a statement, said the decision "sets a dangerous precedent against the right to self-defense and moral warfare and encourages murderous terrorism.” The warrant marked the first time that a sitting leader of a major Western ally has been accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity by a global court of justice. The decision turns Netanyahu and the others into internationally wanted suspects, putting them at risk of arrest when they travel abroad and potentially further isolating them . Israel and its top ally, the United States, are not members of the court. But others of Israel's allies, including some of its close European friends, are put in an awkward position. Several, including France, welcomed the court's decision and signaled they might arrest Netanyahu if he visited. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden's administration was “deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision.” The warrants represent "the most dramatic step yet in the court’s involvement in the conflict between Israel and Hamas," said Anthony Dworkin, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Israeli leaders, politicians and officials across the spectrum denounced the warrants and the ICC. The new defense minister, Israel Katz, who replaced Gallant earlier this month, said Thursday’s decision is “a moral disgrace, entirely tainted by antisemitism, and drags the international judicial system to an unprecedented low.” Human rights groups applauded the move. The warrants against both sides “break through the perception that certain individuals are beyond the reach of the law,” the associate international justice director at Human Rights Watch, Balkees Jarrah, said in a statement. The decision came six months after ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan requested the warrants. The court issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, head of Hamas’ armed wing, over the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that triggered Israel’s offensive in Gaza. It said it found reasonable grounds to believe Deif was involved in murder, rape, torture and the taking of hostages amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity. In the Hamas-led attack, militants stormed into southern Israel, killing 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and taking some 250 others hostage. Around 100 Israelis remain captive in Gaza, around a third of them believed to be dead. Khan withdrew requests for warrants for two other senior Hamas figures, Yahya Sinwar and Ismail Haniyeh , who have both since been killed. Israel says it also killed Deif in an airstrike, but Hamas has never confirmed his death. The warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant were issued by a three-judge panel in a unanimous decision. The panel said there were reasonable grounds to believe that both men bear responsibility for the war crime of starvation and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts. The judges said the lack of food, water, electricity, fuel and specific medical supplies created conditions “calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the civilian population in Gaza,” including the deaths of children due to malnutrition and dehydration. They also found that by preventing hospital supplies and medicine from getting into Gaza, doctors were forced to operate, including performing amputations, without anesthesia or with unsafe means of sedation that led to “great suffering.” Israeli diplomatic officials said the government is lobbying the international community to speak out against the warrants and is considering an appeal to the court. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal decision on how the government will proceed. Despite the warrants, none of the suspects is likely to face judges in The Hague anytime soon. Member countries are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. For example, Russian President Vladimir Putin, wanted on an ICC warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, recently visited Mongolia, a member state in the court but also a Russian ally. He was not arrested. Still, the threat of arrest now complicates any travel abroad by Netanyahu and Gallant. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the warrants are binding on all 27 members countries of the European Union. France signaled it could arrest Netanyahu if he came to its territory. Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine called it a “complex legal issue” but said France supports the court’s actions. “Combating impunity is our priority,” he said. “Our response will align with these principles.” Hamas in a statement welcomed the warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant but made no mention of the one against Deif. Israel’s opposition leaders fiercely criticized the ICC’s move. Benny Gantz, a retired general and political rival to Netanyahu, said it showed “moral blindness” and was a “shameful stain of historic proportion that will never be forgotten.” Israel’s campaign has caused heavy destruction across Gaza and driven almost the entire population of 2.3 million people from their homes, leaving most dependent on aid to survive. Two days after Hamas’ attack on southern Israel, Gallant announced a total seal on Gaza, vowing not to let in food, fuel or other supplies. Under U.S. pressure, Israel began allowing a trickle of humanitarian aid to enter a few weeks later. Israel now says it puts no limit on the supplies permitted into Gaza, and it blames the U.N. distribution system. But Israel's official figures show the amount of aid it has let in has plunged since the beginning of October. The U.N has blamed Israeli military restrictions, along with widespread lawlessness that has led to theft of aid shipments. The case at the ICC is separate from another legal battle Israel is waging at the top U.N. court, the International Court of Justice, in which South Africa accuses Israel of genocide , an allegation Israeli leaders staunchly deny. Lawyers for Israel argued in court that the war in Gaza was a legitimate defense of its people and that it was Hamas militants who were guilty of genocide. Associated Press journalists Raf Casert in Brussels, Mike Corder in The Hague and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.NATO chief discusses 'global security' with TrumpIn the final three weeks of the year 2024, as the world braced for the inevitable changes that lay ahead, a wave of nostalgia swept over me, prompting memories of the year 2004 when technology began to transform our lives in remarkable ways.Moreover, Nvidia's struggles may also reflect a larger trend of tech companies becoming pawns in the US-China tech war, as both countries seek to gain a competitive edge in key technological fields. The escalating tensions have led to increased scrutiny of foreign investments, stricter regulations on technology transfers, and growing concerns about the security implications of cross-border collaborations. Nvidia, as a prominent player in the semiconductor industry with global operations, finds itself at the center of these challenges and must navigate a complex web of regulatory, political, and economic considerations.80 jili download 。

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BERLIN (AP) — Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest. Germany is to vote in an early election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy. Musk's guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag — a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — published in German over the weekend, was the second time this month he supported the Alternative for Germany, or AfD. “The Alternative for Germany (AfD) is the last spark of hope for this country," Musk wrote in his translated commentary. He went on to say the far-right party “can lead the country into a future where economic prosperity, cultural integrity and technological innovation are not just wishes, but reality.” The Tesla Motors CEO also wrote that his investment in Germany gave him the right to comment on the country's condition. The AfD is polling strongly, but its candidate for the top job, Alice Weidel , has no realistic chance of becoming chancellor because other parties refuse to work with the far-right party. An ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, the technology billionaire challenged in his opinion piece the party's public image. “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!” Musk’s commentary has led to a debate in German media over the boundaries of free speech, with the paper's own opinion editor announcing her resignation, pointedly on Musk's social media platform, X. “I always enjoyed leading the opinion section of WELT and WAMS. Today an article by Elon Musk appeared in Welt am Sonntag. I handed in my resignation yesterday after it went to print," Eva Marie Kogel wrote. The newspaper was also attacked by politicians and other media for offering Musk, an outsider, a platform to express his views, in favor of the AfD. Candidate for chancellor, Friedrich Merz, of the Christian Democratic Union, said Sunday that Musk's comments were “intrusive and presumptuous”. He was speaking to the newspapers of the German Funke Media Group. Co-leader of the Social Democratic Party, Saskia Esken said that “Anyone who tries to influence our election from outside, who supports an anti-democratic, misanthropic party like the AfD, whether the influence is organized by the state from Russia or by the concentrated financial and media power of Elon Musk and his billionaire friends on the Springer board, must expect our tough resistance,” according to the ARD national public TV network. Musk's opinion piece in the Welt am Sonntag was accompanied by a critical article by the future editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Jan Philipp Burgard. “Musk’s diagnosis is correct, but his therapeutic approach, that only the AfD can save Germany, is fatally wrong,” Burgard wrote. Responding to a request for comment from the German Press Agency, dpa, the current editor-in-chief of the Welt group, Ulf Poschardt, and Burgard — who is due to take over on Jan. 1 — said in a joint statement that the discussion over Musk's piece was "very insightful. Democracy and journalism thrive on freedom of expression.” “This will continue to determine the compass of the “world” in the future. We will develop “Die Welt” even more decisively as a forum for such debates,” they wrote to dpa.

MAI Capital Management Cuts Stock Position in Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ:MANH)The saga began when Zhao Liying was targeted by two black fans who circulated baseless accusations against her, tarnishing her reputation and causing immense distress. These individuals took to social media platforms to spread lies and manipulate public opinion, painting a negative image of the actress and damaging her career.PM tells David Seymour to focus on regulation, not health

NATO chief Mark Rutte held talks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Florida on the "global security issues facing the alliance", a spokeswoman said on Saturday (November 23, 2024). The meeting took place on Friday in Palm Beach, NATO's Farah Dakhlallah said in a statement. In his first term Trump aggressively pushed Europe to step up defence spending and questioned the fairness of the NATO transatlantic alliance. The former Dutch Prime Minister had said he wanted to meet Trump two days after Trump was elected on November 5, and discuss the threat of increasingly warming ties between North Korea and Russia. Trump's thumping victory to return to the U.S. presidency has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could pull the plug on vital Washington military aid for Ukraine. NATO allies say keeping Kyiv in the fight against Moscow is key to both European and American security. "What we see more and more is that North Korea, Iran, China and of course Russia are working together, working together against Ukraine," Mr. Rutte said recently at a European leaders' meeting in Budapest. "At the same time, Russia has to pay for this, and one of the things they are doing is delivering technology to North Korea", which he warned was threatening to the "mainland of the US (and) continental Europe". "I look forward to sitting down with Donald Trump to discuss how we can face these threats collectively," Rutte said. Published - November 23, 2024 09:47 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit NATO / USA

One way to facilitate the adaptation process is by providing language and cultural training to young Chinese players before they move to Europe. By equipping them with basic language skills and cultural knowledge, players will be better prepared to communicate with their teammates, coaches, and local communities, making their transition smoother and more successful. Additionally, having support systems in place, such as mentors, counselors, and translators, can also help players feel more comfortable and empowered to face the challenges of living abroad.

Spanish sensation Paula Badosa made headlines with her spectacular run at the prestigious Indian Wells tournament, where she overcame a string of higher-ranked opponents to capture the title. Badosa's fearless play and superb shot-making abilities were on full display as she outclassed some of the top players on the tour, including former world number ones and Grand Slam champions. Her unexpected triumph at Indian Wells solidified her status as a rising star in women's tennis and earned her well-deserved praise from the global tennis community.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democratic of Pennsylvania conceded his reelection bid to Republican on Thursday, as a statewide recount showed no signs of closing the gap and his campaign suffered repeated blows in court in its effort to get potentially favorable ballots counted. Casey’s concession comes more than two weeks after Election Day, as a grindingly slow ballot-counting process became a spectacle of hours-long election board meetings, social media outrage, lawsuits and accusations that some county officials were openly flouting the law. Republicans had been claiming that Democrats were trying to steal McCormick’s seat by counting “illegal votes.” Casey’s campaign had accused of Republicans of trying to block enough votes to prevent him from pulling ahead and winning. In a statement, Casey said he had just called McCormick to congratulate him. “As the first count of ballots is completed, Pennsylvanians can move forward with the knowledge that their voices were heard, whether their vote was the first to be counted or the last," Casey said. The Associated Press the race on Nov. 7, concluding that not enough ballots remained to be counted in areas Casey was winning for him to take the lead. As of Thursday, McCormick led by about 16,000 votes out of almost 7 million ballots counted. That was well within the 0.5% margin threshold to trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania law. But no election official expected a recount to change more than a couple hundred votes or so, and Pennsylvania's highest court dealt him a blow when it refused entreaties to allow counties to count mail-in ballots that lacked a correct handwritten date on the return envelope. Republicans will have a 53-47 majority next year in the U.S. Senate. Follow Marc Levy at

India News | Union Minister Manohar Lal Launches NTPC's Green Hydrogen Buses in LehPlanned Parenthood sees spike in demand for contraceptives after election

Another point of contention between Zelensky and Trump is the issue of territorial concessions. The Ukrainian president has made it clear that any peace deal must not compromise Ukraine's territorial integrity or undermine the country's sovereignty. Trump's peace talk initiative reportedly included proposals that could potentially weaken Ukraine's position in negotiations with Russia, a prospect that Zelensky is unwilling to entertain.

ilytih A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company. Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration. —————————— The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP’s text archives.By Jim Rossman, Tribune News Service (TNS) Everyone seems to be listening to something. I’m not sure what they’re listening to, because they all seem to be wearing headphones. I suppose they’re all listening to their favorite podcast or just their playlists. Here are a few gift suggestions for headphones that’ll make anything sound better. I’ve listed the retail pricing, but don’t be surprised if you find them on sale. Soundcore AeroFit 2 adjustable open-ear wireless earbuds We’ve all tried traditional earbuds. They can sound good if the fit is correct. The SoundCore AreoFit 2 ($99.99, soundcore.com) don’t fit inside your ear canal. Instead, they sit on the outside of your ear. The battery sits behind your ear, much like a hearing aid. The speaker is attached by a sturdy, yet flexible cable. The only adjustment is on the speaker end – it clicks to adjust the angle of the speaker to sit directly over your ear canal. The fact that they don’t insert into your ears means you can still hear the outside world, so you are not so isolated. These are great for jogging or biking. The sound is really nice. The full range of sound comes in very clearly and the form factor is comfortable to wear, even for hours at a time. There are four microphones, so your voice sounds clear on phone calls. They have an IP55 rating, so they can withstand water spashing, sweat or dust. They can also connect to more than one device, so you can keep them paired to your phone and laptop and switch easily between them. The AeroFit 2 can play for 10 hours on a charge. They live in a battery case that can keep them charged for more than 40 hours. The charging case can power up via a USB-C port or a Qi wireless charger. They are available in white, blue, green or black. Soundcore C40i clip-on earbuds The Soundcore C40i ($99.99, soundcore.com) is another fun option in a non-traditional form factor. Instead of going inside or even over the top your ears, the C40i earbuds are u-shaped and they clip on the sides of your ears. They are unlike anything I’ve ever tried, and they sounded surprisingly good once you get them in the right spot. They are a bit flexible, in that you can pull them apart slightly to get them in the right spot. Once you let go, they gently grip your earlobe. I must admit I was a little self-conscious when I first started wearing the C40i earbuds, as they look a bit like earrings. The fit is interesting. The end with the speaker sits in front of your ear canal and the end with the battery and action button goes behind your ear. You can adjust them on your ear until the sound becomes clear. It’ll be obvious to your ears when you have them adjusted correctly. If your earlobes are thin, there are some rubber sleeves that can help with the fit. You want them to be snug, but not to the point where they are pinching your ears. There is a customizable button on the back of each earbud for call and music control. They are on the small side, so the battery life is seven hours before needing to return to the case for a charge. The case can charge them twice more before it needs recharging. The case charges via USB-C cable, but it is too small for wireless chargers. The earbuds have a 12mm x 17mm oval shaped driver and the sound quality is very good. Voice quality on phone calls also surprised me with its clarity. They sync with the Soundcore phone app to let you assign the button commands and tweak the sound settings. They also can pair to two devices at once. Baseus Bowie 30 Max noise-canceling headphones Frequent flyers know all about noise canceling over-the-ear headphones. These headphones usually have active noise canceling, which uses microphones to listen to the ambient noise and reduce it before it can get to your ears. What I’m noticing is more and more people wearing these during workouts or just walking around. The Baseus Bowie 30 Max noise canceling headphones ($79.99, baseus.com) are fairly generic looking headphones, but their performance is incredible for the price. Baseus says the Bowie 30s can eliminate 96 percent of noise, but that actual noise cancellation will vary depending on the ambient noise level. I can tell you the noise canceling is impressive. There is also a transparency mode that lets in outside sounds so you can have a conversation with someone without taking them off. You can pair them to the free Baseus phone app to unlock some additional features including spatial acoustics, bass enhancement and low-latency mode. These connect to your phone or PC wirelessly via Bluetooth or wired with an included 3.5mm cable. They last an impressive 65 hours on a charge without noise canceling or 50 hours with noise canceling enabled. The ear cups and piece that fits over the top of your head are nicely padded and the entire headset folds up to take up less room in your bag. ©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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A voter-approved Maine limit on PAC contributions sets the stage for a legal challengeNvidia stock is set up well for 2025 as chip demand to remain red hot: JefferiesCBC is restoring its live New Year’s Eve celebration. A year after the national broadcaster cancelled the 2024 countdown due to “financial pressures,” it says the special event is back on the TV schedule to mark the dawn of 2025. Festivities begin Dec. 31 with the one-hour “22 Minutes New Year’s Eve Pregame Special,” a satirical reflection on the events of 2024 with the cast of the political comedy series “This Hour Has 22 Minutes.” It will be followed by “Canada Live! Countdown 2025,” a special hosted by news anchor Adrienne Arsenault and singer Jann Arden broadcasting live from Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, and anchor Ian Hanomansing and comedian Ali Hassan at Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden. A representative for the CBC says the coast-to-coast show will feature reporters at more than a dozen community events across the country while a countdown to the new year will take place in each of the six time zones. Throughout the seven-and-a-half-hour program, “many Canadian celebrity guests” will appear in live and pre-taped messages. “Canada Live! Countdown 2025” begins at 8 p.m. ET on CBC News Network and CBC Gem with CBC-TV and CBC Radio picking up the feed at 9 p.m. in local markets. Last year, the CBC replaced its live New Year’s Eve programming with a taped Just For Laughs special hosted by comedian Mae Martin. That left Canadians without a homegrown countdown on any of the major networks, which sparked blowback on social media from some viewers. The CBC began its annual specials in 2017 to mark Canada’s sesquicentennial year. Some of the more recent broadcasts were hosted by comedian Rick Mercer and featured fireworks and musical performances in key cities. But when CBC paused those plans last year, it said the show had become “increasingly expensive to produce.” The decision to sideline the program was made shortly after members of Parliament summoned outgoing CBC president Catherine Tait to testify about job cuts and her refusal to rule out bonuses for CBC executives.

Cousins Properties Announces Pricing of Senior Notes OfferingYoung Cop Stops 3 Drunk Men For Check, Gets KilledNo-grow zone LABOUR cannot shirk the blame for our ­dismal economic figures. In the first half of 2024, under Rishi Sunak , UK growth led the G7 . Under the new “growth-focused” Government, we have shrunk for two straight months. On taking power Labour chose not to talk Britain’s prospects up but to trash the Tories, exaggerate our problems and conjure up a “£22billion black hole”. How did they imagine investors would react to a Government saying the country was on its knees? They fled. And our firms froze with fear about the Budget. READ MORE SUN SAYS The crippling tax rises that they unleashed, including the job-wrecking National Insurance hike, are likely to trigger more woe in November’s figures. Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she has rolled the pitch for bumper long-term growth. The OBR is more pessimistic. We must hope she’s right and the economists are wrong. Wrecker Ed IT is arguable that Russia might never have invaded Ukraine were it not for Ed Miliband’s ­political parlour games. Most read in The Sun In 2013 he whipped Labour to defeat Tory plans to join the US in bombing Syria to stop it using chemical weapons. Without us, President Obama backed off. Assad continued his savagery, his ally Putin saw the West had lost its nerve and months later he attacked Crimea. So Health Secretary Wes Streeting is right to call out our “hesitation”, meaning his Cabinet colleague’s opportunism. These days Miliband’s unbending ignorance is driving us off a Net Zero cliff. High time Keir Starmer stopped him inflicting the same carnage on our energy supply as he may have done on all those lives in Syria and Ukraine . Name them NO ONE failed Sara Sharif as egregiously as the family court which handed her over to her monstrous father and stepmother. A judge and social workers made that ruling in 2019 despite knowing Urfan Sharif’s appalling record of abuse. Now, incredibly, another judge has ordered they must remain anonymous to dodge criticism. But they SHOULD be accountable for the error which proved a death sentence for little Sara. How else to stop them making another? Andy sums WHERE is disgraced, jobless Prince Andrew getting his money ? Cut off by the King after the Epstein paedo scandal, he can still afford the huge bills on the vast Royal Lodge. READ MORE SUN STORIES His top business advisor is an alleged Chinese spy — and people are snuck into and out of his mansion “unnoticed”. Are these murky dealings remotely in the national interest? Or just Andrew’s?

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The guy on the Philly sports talk radio station had something to say, and he started to vent about the perceived strained relationship between star quarterback Jalen Hurts and standout wide receiver A.J. Brown. Why weren’t these two Pro Bowl Eagles on the same page? Why had their personal and professional relationship changed even with Philadelphia enjoying tremendous success? It was football gossip usually ripe for a hot-take host or fed-up fan to stir up on the air — only in this instance, the temperature check came from inside the locker room. Normally respected team leader Brandon Graham, who is sidelined with a triceps injury, noted in a radio appearance that “ things have changed ” between Hurts and Brown in the wake of a stale passing game in last week’s win over Carolina. An apologetic Graham walked back his comments. Hurts and Brown both insisted their relationship was cool in front of media hordes more appropriate for the Super Bowl. As for the rest of the Eagles, they were ready to squash the so-called controversy. “We are moving on,” offensive lineman and Christmas song crooner Jordan Mailata said. “It is the Pittsburgh Steelers this week. Not the A.J. Brown and Jalen Show. It is the Pittsburgh Steelers. That’s it.” Oh yeah, the Steelers! Lost in the brouhaha ignited in a Philly sports bar is the fact that sitting — and winning — on the western side of Pennsylvania are the Steelers (10-3). Unlike most matchups in series history, this one Sunday at the Linc comes with the tantalizing appeal of a potential Super Bowl preview. The Steelers have won seven of eight, and the Eagles (11-2) have won nine straight and could clinch the NFC East with a win and a Washington loss or tie. It's the first time the teams — among the original eight NFL teams — will play each other when they both have a double-digit win total. Both teams are in strong position for a playoff run — the Eagles led by Saquon Barkley and his pursuit of Eric Dickerson's NFL season rushing record; Russell Wilson and the soft-schedule Steelers atop the AFC North in large part thanks to six wins against teams that currently have losing records. “I do like playing really good people, I think there's growth in it,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “You've got to get the job done. But man, I think there's significant growth in pitting your collective talents and skills versus big-time opponents and they're certainly that.” Will the drama out of Philly this week affect the Eagles? They certainly don't think so and neither do the oddsmakers — the Eagles are 5 1/2-point favorites, per BetMGM. “What I’ve noticed about this football team is they’re so locked in and determined to get better each day,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We don’t really want anyone else talking to us about anything other than the Pittsburgh Steelers.” Good luck with that, Coach. Maybe playing the Steelers on Sunday at home can snap the Eagles out of their offensive malaise. Hurts threw three TD passes to Brown in a 35-13 win in 2022. Barkley leads the NFL in rushing with 1,623 yards, 216 yards ahead of Baltimore’s Derrick Henry. He is averaging 124.8 yards per game. At that pace, and with one more game to play than Dickerson had, he would become the top single-season rusher in NFL history. He needs 483 yards over the final four games to top Dickerson’s 40-year-old record. Barkley is on pace for 2,122 yards, which would put him just 17 yards beyond Dickerson’s 2,105 in 1984. Barkley doesn’t need much of a reminder from his 2020 performance when, while playing for the New York Giants, he ran into a Pittsburgh defense that seemed reminiscent of its famed Steel Curtain. The Steelers held Barkley to 6 yards on 15 carries. The Steelers will have to find a way forward against the NFL’s toughest defense without wide receiver George Pickens, who will miss his second straight game with a hamstring injury. Pittsburgh survived last week against Cleveland, with Mike Williams and Scotty Miller — afterthoughts of late — coming off the bench to make an impact. While Tomlin believes “the strength of the pack is the pack,” the reality is the Steelers don’t have anyone who can stretch the field like Pickens, who leads the team in receptions (55) and yards (850) by a wide margin. It’s a challenge, but considering the way Wilson has spread the ball around — eight players caught passes against the Browns — he won’t lack for options. “Everybody in the receiver room has a different skill set, different strengths,” Calvin Austin III said. “The coaching staff knows that and they know how to put us in position to be able to show that.” The cross-state trip to Philadelphia, where the Steelers haven’t won in nearly 60 years, is the start of an 11-day stretch in which Pittsburgh faces three teams likely bound for the playoffs. While Tomlin is leaning into the “nameless, gray faces” mantra he uses for every opponent, his players know facing the Eagles, Ravens and Chiefs in such a short period is a litmus test for what’s to come in January. “That’s why I’m in the league, period,” linebacker Patrick Queen said. “When you sign up to play football, you want to play at the highest level. ... I love to play the game the right way. I think these next few games is going to show that and it starts with the Eagles.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflIsraeli airstrike kills nine Palestinians in Gaza: Sources

‘Want good ties but Pak must end terror’NEW YORK , Nov. 22, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Halper Sadeh LLC, an investor rights law firm, is investigating the following companies for potential violations of the federal securities laws and/or breaches of fiduciary duties to shareholders relating to: AeroVironment, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVAV)'s merger with BlueHalo LLC. Per the terms of the proposed transaction, AeroVironment will issue approximately 18.5 million shares of AeroVironment common stock to BlueHalo. Upon closing of the proposed transaction, AeroVironment shareholders will own approximately 60.5% of the combined company. If you are an AeroVironment shareholder, click here to learn more about your legal rights and options . Innovid Corp. (NYSE: CTV)'s sale to Mediaocean for $3.15 per share. If you are an Innovid shareholder, click here to learn more about your legal rights and options . Adams Resources & Energy, Inc. (NYSE: AE)'s sale to an affiliate of Tres Energy LLC for $38.00 per share in cash. If you are an Adams shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options . Piedmont Lithium Inc. (NASDAQ: PLL)'s merger with Sayona Mining Limited. If you are a Piedmont shareholder, click here to learn more about your rights and options . Halper Sadeh LLC may seek increased consideration for shareholders, additional disclosures and information concerning the proposed transaction, or other relief and benefits on behalf of shareholders. We would handle the action on a contingent fee basis, whereby you would not be responsible for out-of-pocket payment of our legal fees or expenses. Shareholders are encouraged to contact the firm free of charge to discuss their legal rights and options. Please call Daniel Sadeh or Zachary Halper at (212) 763-0060 or email sadeh@halpersadeh.com or zhalper@halpersadeh.com . Halper Sadeh LLC represents investors all over the world who have fallen victim to securities fraud and corporate misconduct. Our attorneys have been instrumental in implementing corporate reforms and recovering millions of dollars on behalf of defrauded investors. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Halper Sadeh LLC Daniel Sadeh, Esq. Zachary Halper, Esq. One World Trade Center 85th Floor New York, NY 10007 (212) 763-0060 sadeh@halpersadeh.com zhalper@halpersadeh.com https://www.halpersadeh.com View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/shareholder-investigation-halper-sadeh-llc-investigates-avav-ctv-ae-pll-on-behalf-of-shareholders-302314337.html SOURCE Halper Sadeh LLPThe downfall of America's 'most hated mayor' as he sparks fresh outrage among despairing residents Just 18 months into office and Johnson is already seen as Chicago's worst mayor By JAMES REINL, SOCIAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT, FOR DAILYMAIL.COM Published: 19:02, 23 November 2024 | Updated: 19:02, 23 November 2024 e-mail View comments Brandon Johnson struck an uplifting note in his inaugural speech as Chicago 's mayor in May 2023, saying a 'better day is ahead' for a city gripped by 'violence and despair.' Eighteen months later, and residents of the third-biggest US city are waiting on the Democrat to deliver, as his popularity collapses amid a series of political missteps . Just 14 percent of Chicagoans approve of the mayor, and 70 percent view him unfavorably, according to a recent survey by San-Francisco based Change Research. Critics say the dad-of-three has been too hostile to police while abandoning his teachers' union pals and the cash-strapped Chicagoans who voted him into office. Stephen Maynard Caliendo, a political science professor, says Johnson, 48, gets bad advice and makes too many 'rookie mistakes.' 'The honeymoon is well over. There has to be some wins coming,' Caliendo told CBS News. Johnson's office did not answer our request for comment. His supporters say it's hard to reverse Chicago's long-standing problems of poverty, crime , and racial tensions overnight when the city faces a $1 billion budget deficit crisis. Against this backdrop, DailyMail.com takes a look at what's gone wrong for Chicago's mayor... THE THIN BLUE LINE Mayor Brandon Johnson's approval rating is 56 points underwater after just 18 months on the job The mayor was not welcome at the funeral this month of slain Chicago Police Officer Enrique Martine Read More Chicago mayor Brandon Johnson tries to blame Richard Nixon for July 4 weekend of gun violence Voters in Chicago, like anywhere else, want to feel safe when they walk down the street. But Johnson fell into the progressive politician's trap of going softer on lawbreakers than the public can stomach. As America grappled with the police killing of George Floyd, Johnson, then Cook County Commissioner, joined others in calls to 'defund the police.' He backtracked on this during a mayoral election campaign that pitted him against centrist Democrat Paul Vallas, who vowed to hire more officers amid widespread public safety concerns. Even so, his mayorship has suffered by a lack of commitment to law and order. The number of aggravated assaults in Chicago jumped 4 percent to 14,029 between 2023 and 2024, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA). The numbers of homicides, rapes, and robberies fell slightly, but remains alarmingly high. In his draft budget for the hard up city, Johnson last month proposed swingeing cuts to police training and reform efforts. Maggie Hickey, an independent monitor of the Chicago Police Department, said it 'risks undoing' progress in the force. Johnson's lack of support among street cops was plain to see this week. He planned to attend his funeral of Officer Enrique Martinez, who was killed during a traffic stop on the South Side. But the officer's family and the police union raised objections. Johnson eventually backtracked, saying he was 'honoring' the family's request to stay away. When it comes to cops, crime and public safety, Johnson just can't get it right. THE UNION'S MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE Johnson was supposed to be the mayor who could handle contract negotiations with a powerful teaching union Instead, a public school system for some 323,000 students has been thrown into chaos Read More America's 'most hated mayor' is blasted by fuming residents over radical new policy The Chicago Teachers Union bankrolled Johnson's mayoral campaign - pouring cash into the candidacy of one of its ex-organizers and former social studies teacher. As mayor, Johnson was expected to repay the largesse when teachers contracts were re-negotiated in 2024. But cash-strapped Chicago can't afford to meet educators' demand for a 9 percent annual pay bump. Johnson tied himself in knots trying to keep the union happy while balancing the books. His plan to fill a looming deficit in the schools budget with a $300m short-term, high-interest loan was rejected by the public school district's CEO, Pedro Martinez. When Johnson tried to get school board members to oust Martinez, they refused and resigned instead. Last month, the mayor hastily appointed new board members, but the damage was already done. The public spat threw a system for some 323,000 students into chaos, and Johnson had alienated many of his former backers. WINDY CITY WELCOME Mayor Johnson visits a police headquarters that was housing asylum-seekers and migrant new arrivals in May 2023 Johnson was in August ranked as America's 'worst sanctuary mayor' by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a watchdog Read More School board is set to RESIGN after hated city mayor 'forced' bosses to remove public schools CEO Chicago is not the only liberal US city struggling to cope with the influx of immigrants and asylum seekers across the southern border. But Johnson has struggled especially hard to accommodate the tens of thousands of newcomers who arrived looking for work and schools and without a roof over their heads. When his administration turned public schools into shelters and doled out apartments to foreigners, residents in the mostly-black affected neighborhoods vented their ire on social media. In one viral clip, an African-American woman slammed the mayor's support for asylum seekers, with shelters and $9,000 payouts, saying it was at the expense of the blacks who helped elect him. 'I don't understand how they can give these immigrants thousands of dollars in the state of Illinois, but look what they're doing to our own f******g people,' said the Chicago woman. She described seeing 'Latinos' arriving in her neighborhood in a '12-foot box truck,' using government welfare checks to 'buy up everything' and effectively price black residents out. 'The fact they are here, and our government is giving more to them than to the people who were born here, is really starting to p**s us off,' she added. 'Mayor Brandon, we are coming for your a**.' Johnson was in August ranked as America's 'worst sanctuary mayor' by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a watchdog. The group said he'd lavished hundreds of millions of dollars on immigrants while his own voters languished in poverty. DEARTH OF TAXES Downing a pint at a Chicago boozer will get more expensive under Mayor Johnson's tax hike plans Johnson has failed miserably at what 17th Century French statesmen Jean-Baptiste Colbert called the 'art of taxation.' For Colbert, it involved 'so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing.' Yet the hissing after Johnson's hikes on property and liquor taxes has been hard to ignore. When he proposed $300 million rise in property taxes in the 2025 budget, City Council members had a rare moment of unanimity. They voted 50-0 against the proposal. The mayor's revised plan, a $150 million hike, is only slightly less unpopular. Chicagoans already pay among the highest property taxes in the country. Poor and minority groups have long said the taxes make homeownership a pipe dream. One Chicago resident, a woman known only as Mrs Lawrence, slammed the mayor at a recent city meeting. 'We paid for these properties for a purpose and not for you to go touchin' it with $300 million that you want to siphon out of the citizens' pockets,' she said. Seemingly not content with taxing Chicagoans into homelessness, the mayor also took aim at their Friday nights. He seeks to raise taxes in liquor in bars and restaurants to 35 percent, the first such bump since 2008. Hospitality groups are fighting against the plan, saying it will upend their industry. THE TRUMP SLUMP Donald Trump made gains with voters across Illinois in this month's election, but did not win the state Johnson's predecessor Lori Lightfoot didn't leave office with a smile on her face The writing has been on the wall for Johnson for some time. Voices calling for his recall are growing louder. This month's presidential election was another wake-up call about the changing face of blue US cities. President-elect Donald Trump's vote share rose from 15.8 percent across Cook County, which includes Chicago, in 2020, to 21.4 percent this year. MAGA Chicagoans blasted Johnson's tax hikes at a heated city council meeting this month in a sign of the city's shifting political sands. Among the most vocal critics was Tyjuan Sims, who confronted Johnson directly, accusing him of neglecting Chicagoans while helping undocumented immigrants. 'The feds need to address you! The DOJ needs to address you! And hopefully Donald Trump will address you,' Sims yelled in the chamber. 'You're gonna protect the undocumented, while you're gonna allow for the citizens in Chicago to suffer under your, what? Three percent?' Johnson has been on the back foot for weeks. Reporters quizzed him about his doomed taxation plans and dismal approval ratings this week. He said it was 'too early' to grade his performance, and talked up recent gains — investment flows to Chicago and a falling homicide rate. Johnson is having a hard time, but he can perhaps take some solace in the fact that he's not the only unpopular mayor Chicagoans have complained about. His predecessor, Lori Lightfoot, was so unpopular that she failed to make the mayoral run-off vote in 2023. Before her, Rahm Emanuel dropped his 2019 reelection bid amid controversies over rising crime, school closures and an infamous police shooting. Share or comment on this article: The downfall of America's 'most hated mayor' as he sparks fresh outrage among despairing residents e-mail Add commentInternationally acclaimed Chinese artist Cao Fei’s first retrospective in Australia, My City is Yours at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, sets out to disorient and overstimulate the senses. In the exhibition introduction, Cao describes “a show that’s boisterous like the mall or the market”. It bombards you with documentaries and sci-fi films, virtual reality (VR) games and vintage arcade machines, neon lights contrasting industrial metal scaffolds, electronica jamming hip-hop music. Yet, this city-scape of an exhibition has been designed with care. You could take these all in: sitting in a vintage cinema chair by some beach sand, perhaps submerged in sponge blocks; lounging on a sofa in a family living room; hunching on a bunk bed in a factory; resting on the vinyl padded chrome chair of a Cantonese yum-cha restaurant. Cao embraces this mix of pleasure, convenience, banality, challenge and alienation condensed into the nostalgic, dazzling yet future-craving contemporary life. Retro-perspective The entrance of the show replicates the reception of the now demolished Hongxia Theatre in Beijing, built in 1957 for workers employed to build China’s first computers, with the aid of the Soviet Union. The gilt Chinese inscriptions on the scarlet signboard — “Splendid Galaxy” and “Human World Motion Pictures” — set the retro-futuristic tone that permeates the exhibition. Through the doors, the gallery space transforms into offices and a cinema furnished with Hongxia Theatre’s chairs, desks and chandeliers. Behind a curtain of a retro wardrobe flashes portraits of current residents. Cao rented the theatre as a studio between 2015 and 2021. Her time roaming the once cultural hotspot for China’s early techno-optimists results in installations, two documentaries and a sci-fi film, as well as VR work. Through this range of media, the ambitious project connects past and future, as the exhibition section title, Enter the Wormhole, suggests. The documentary Postscript of Hongxia (2023) captures the memories and fights of the residents and the buildings being brutally bulldozed. Another video work, An Elegy to Hongxia (2023), plays the overly optimistic folk music The Morning Sun at Eight and Nine O’clock (composed by Chinese contemporary indie musician Xiongxiong Homework). The music takes its title from a famous quote by Chairman Mao stressing young people’s vigour, yet the accordion player performs this elegy amid the ruins of the cinema, farewelling a lost socialist dream. This lost dream and accordion music rebirth in Cao’s 2019 sci-fi film NOVA. In this imagined town Nova, a Chinese computer scientist and a Soviet expert fall in love, dancing to Soviet folk and propaganda music, Katyusha. But this collective dream ends again in tragedy. Their love child dissolves into a digital soul trapped in a virtual realm. He is trekking China’s past, present and future socialisms, perhaps forever. Factory disco and Canto-humour Moving toward the Factory Zone, the doubt on techno progression in NOVA is replaced by a disco frenzy in the film Asia One (2018). This story sets in the world’s first fully automated storage and distribution centre in Kunshan, outskirt of Shanghai. Workers dressed in Maoist period style dance in the empty gigantic warehouse. A red banner in yellow Chinese characters reads “Humans and machines, hand in hand creating miracles”. The rebellious spirit and optimism in Asia One on one hand evoke connection to China’s recent revolution, on another hand suggest some hope of a future collaborating with machines. This retro fantasy could be Cao’s iconic Canto-humour, influenced by 1990s Hong Kong films such as Stephen Chow’s mo lei tau (nonsense) comedies. Such films were once screened in the Harbour City Cinema, in Sydney’s Chinatown, and Cao has selected movie posters to exhibit alongside the Hongxia project. The same kind of absurdist Cantonese humour can be found in her earliest DV video work Imbalance 257 (1999). Youngsters from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts act out scenes in the studio, toilet, dormitory and video game arcade. This is the work that caught the attention of the art world, bringing Cao to a global audience two decades ago. This video work, together with other early DV videos like Rabid Dog (2002) and San Yuan Li (2003, with Ou Ning) are played on retro CRT TVs. You could watch these DVs on the tables surrounding dim-sum trolleys salvaged from the old Haymarket Marigold restaurant. Chinatown hip hop shuffle Sydney’s Asian-Australian community is celebrated in the newly commissioned work, Hip Hop: Sydney. It is part of Cao’s ongoing series featuring amateur locals dancing on the streets of Guangzhou, New York, Fukuoka and now Sydney. For this iteration, cosplayers dance in dress-up photo booths; tour guides dance in front of the Haymarket Chinatown ceremonial archway; 90-year-old George Wing Kee dances in front of the Sydney sensation Emperor’s Garden Cakes & Bakery; shoppers dance between aisles of Asian food in Market City’s Thai Kee supermarket; writer and broadcaster Benjamin Law cameos as a waiter. He dances in front of the famous Chinatown Chinese Noodle Restaurant while its boss, Xiaotang Qin, plays Jingle Bells on his violin. Exiting the exhibition with this seasonal number still ringing in your ears, you walk fittingly into the gift shop. It appropriately decks out in an assortment of Chinese-cyber-sci-fi-inspired gifts, seemingly mirroring the boisterous market. Yet, beyond the alluring frantic façade, Cao grapples with questions of techno-optimism, social and urban transformation, virtual identities and their commidifcation. In other words, this is an exhibition about this brave new human condition we are each coming to terms with. Cao Fei: My City is Yours 曹斐: 欢迎登陆 is at the Art Gallery of New South Wales until April 13 2025.

ACLU of Kansas prepares for second Trump term and ‘attacks on civil liberties’

By Jim Rossman, Tribune News Service (TNS) Everyone seems to be listening to something. I’m not sure what they’re listening to, because they all seem to be wearing headphones. I suppose they’re all listening to their favorite podcast or just their playlists. Here are a few gift suggestions for headphones that’ll make anything sound better. I’ve listed the retail pricing, but don’t be surprised if you find them on sale. We’ve all tried traditional earbuds. They can sound good if the fit is correct. The SoundCore AreoFit 2 ($99.99, soundcore.com) don’t fit inside your ear canal. Instead, they sit on the outside of your ear. The battery sits behind your ear, much like a hearing aid. The speaker is attached by a sturdy, yet flexible cable. The only adjustment is on the speaker end – it clicks to adjust the angle of the speaker to sit directly over your ear canal. The fact that they don’t insert into your ears means you can still hear the outside world, so you are not so isolated. These are great for jogging or biking. The sound is really nice. The full range of sound comes in very clearly and the form factor is comfortable to wear, even for hours at a time. There are four microphones, so your voice sounds clear on phone calls. They have an IP55 rating, so they can withstand water spashing, sweat or dust. They can also connect to more than one device, so you can keep them paired to your phone and laptop and switch easily between them. The AeroFit 2 can play for 10 hours on a charge. They live in a battery case that can keep them charged for more than 40 hours. The charging case can power up via a USB-C port or a Qi wireless charger. They are available in white, blue, green or black. The Soundcore C40i ($99.99, soundcore.com) is another fun option in a non-traditional form factor. Instead of going inside or even over the top your ears, the C40i earbuds are u-shaped and they clip on the sides of your ears. They are unlike anything I’ve ever tried, and they sounded surprisingly good once you get them in the right spot. They are a bit flexible, in that you can pull them apart slightly to get them in the right spot. Once you let go, they gently grip your earlobe. I must admit I was a little self-conscious when I first started wearing the C40i earbuds, as they look a bit like earrings. The fit is interesting. The end with the speaker sits in front of your ear canal and the end with the battery and action button goes behind your ear. You can adjust them on your ear until the sound becomes clear. It’ll be obvious to your ears when you have them adjusted correctly. If your earlobes are thin, there are some rubber sleeves that can help with the fit. You want them to be snug, but not to the point where they are pinching your ears. There is a customizable button on the back of each earbud for call and music control. They are on the small side, so the battery life is seven hours before needing to return to the case for a charge. The case can charge them twice more before it needs recharging. The case charges via USB-C cable, but it is too small for wireless chargers. The earbuds have a 12mm x 17mm oval shaped driver and the sound quality is very good. Voice quality on phone calls also surprised me with its clarity. They sync with the Soundcore phone app to let you assign the button commands and tweak the sound settings. They also can pair to two devices at once. Frequent flyers know all about noise canceling over-the-ear headphones. These headphones usually have active noise canceling, which uses microphones to listen to the ambient noise and reduce it before it can get to your ears. What I’m noticing is more and more people wearing these during workouts or just walking around. The Baseus Bowie 30 Max noise canceling headphones ($79.99, baseus.com) are fairly generic looking headphones, but their performance is incredible for the price. Baseus says the Bowie 30s can eliminate 96 percent of noise, but that actual noise cancellation will vary depending on the ambient noise level. I can tell you the noise canceling is impressive. There is also a transparency mode that lets in outside sounds so you can have a conversation with someone without taking them off. You can pair them to the free Baseus phone app to unlock some additional features including spatial acoustics, bass enhancement and low-latency mode. These connect to your phone or PC wirelessly via Bluetooth or wired with an included 3.5mm cable. They last an impressive 65 hours on a charge without noise canceling or 50 hours with noise canceling enabled. The ear cups and piece that fits over the top of your head are nicely padded and the entire headset folds up to take up less room in your bag. ©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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ATLANTA , Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Cousins Properties Incorporated (the "Company" or "Cousins") (NYSE:CUZ) announced today that its operating partnership, Cousins Properties LP (the "Operating Partnership"), has priced an offering of $400 million aggregate principal amount of 5.375% senior unsecured notes due 2032 at 99.463% of the principal amount. The offering is expected to close on December 17, 2024 , subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. Cousins intends to use the net proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the purchase price of 601 West 2nd Street, also known as Sail Tower, an 804,000 square foot trophy lifestyle office property in Austin (the "Sail Tower Acquisition"), and the remainder to repay borrowings under its credit facility and for general corporate purposes. In the event the Sail Tower Acquisition is not completed, Cousins will use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition and development of office properties, other opportunistic investments and the repayment of debt. The notes will be fully and unconditionally guaranteed on a senior unsecured basis by the Company. J.P. Morgan, Truist Securities, US Bancorp, BofA Securities, Morgan Stanley, PNC Capital Markets LLC, TD Securities and Wells Fargo Securities are acting as joint book-running managers. A shelf registration statement relating to these securities is effective with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The offering may be made only by means of a prospectus supplement and accompanying prospectus. Copies of these documents may be obtained by contacting J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, 383 Madison Avenue, New York, New York , 10179, Attention: Investment Grade Syndicate Desk, 3rd Floor, telephone collect at 1-212-834-4533; Truist Securities, Inc., Attention: Prospectus Department, 303 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30308, telephone: 800-685-4786, or e-mail: TruistSecurities.prospectus@Truist.com ; or U.S. Bancorp Investments, Inc., Attention: High Grade Syndicate, 214 North Tryon Street, 26th Floor, Charlotte, NC 28202, or by telephone at: (877) 558-2607. Electronic copies of these documents are also available from the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov . This press release is neither an offer to purchase nor a solicitation of an offer to sell the notes, nor shall it constitute an offer, solicitation or sale in any state or jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale is unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state or other jurisdiction. About Cousins Properties Cousins Properties is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust ("REIT"). The Company, based in Atlanta, GA and acting through the Operating Partnership, primarily invests in Class A office buildings located in high growth Sun Belt markets. Founded in 1958, Cousins creates shareholder value through its extensive expertise in the development, acquisition, leasing, and management of high-quality real estate assets. The Company has a comprehensive strategy in place based on a simple platform, trophy assets, and opportunistic investments. Forward-Looking Statements Certain matters contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws and are subject to uncertainties and risks, as itemized in Item 1A included in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 and in the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended June 30, 2024 and September 30, 2024 . These forward-looking statements include information about the Company's possible or assumed future results of the business and the Company's financial condition, liquidity, results of operations, plans, and objectives. They also include, among other things, statements regarding subjects that are forward-looking by their nature, such as: guidance and underlying assumptions; business and financial strategy; future debt financings; future acquisitions and dispositions of operating assets or joint venture interests; future acquisitions and dispositions of land, including ground leases; future acquisitions of investments in real estate debt; future development and redevelopment opportunities; future issuances and repurchases of common stock, limited partnership units, or preferred stock; future distributions; projected capital expenditures; market and industry trends; future occupancy or volume and velocity of leasing activity; entry into new markets, changes in existing market concentrations, or exits from existing markets; future changes in interest rates and liquidity of capital markets; and all statements that address operating performance, events, investments, or developments that we expect or anticipate will occur in the future — including statements relating to creating value for stockholders. Any forward-looking statements are based upon management's beliefs, assumptions, and expectations of our future performance, taking into account information that is currently available. These beliefs, assumptions, and expectations may change as a result of possible events or factors, not all of which are known. If a change occurs, our business, financial condition, liquidity, and results of operations may vary materially from those expressed in forward-looking statements. Actual results may vary from forward-looking statements due to, but not limited to, the following: the availability and terms of capital and our ability to obtain and maintain financing arrangements on terms favorable to us or at all; the ability to refinance or repay indebtedness as it matures; any changes to our credit rating; the failure of purchase, sale, or other contracts to ultimately close; the failure to achieve anticipated benefits from acquisitions, developments, investments, or dispositions; the effect of common stock or operating partnership unit issuances, including those undertaken on a forward basis, which may negatively affect the market price of our common stock; the availability of buyers and pricing with respect to the disposition of assets; changes in national and local economic conditions, the real estate industry, and the commercial real estate markets in which we operate (including supply and demand changes), particularly in Atlanta , Austin , Tampa , Charlotte , Phoenix , Dallas , and Nashville , including the impact of high unemployment, volatility in the public equity and debt markets, and international economic and other conditions; threatened terrorist attacks or sociopolitical unrest such as political instability, civil unrest, armed hostilities, or political activism, which may result in a disruption of day-to-day building operations; changes to our strategy in regard to our real estate assets may require impairment to be recognized; leasing risks, including the ability to obtain new tenants or renew expiring tenants, the ability to lease newly-developed and/or recently acquired space, the failure of a tenant to commence or complete tenant improvements on schedule or to occupy leased space, and the risk of declining leasing rates; changes in the preferences of our tenants brought about by the desire for co-working arrangements, trends toward utilizing less office space per employee, and the effect of employees working remotely; any adverse change in the financial condition or liquidity of one or more of our tenants or borrowers under our real estate debt investments; volatility in interest rates (including the impact upon the effectiveness of forward interest rate contract arrangements) and insurance rates; inflation; competition from other developers or investors; the risks associated with real estate developments (such as zoning approval, receipt of required permits, construction delays, cost overruns, and leasing risk); supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and increased construction costs; risks associated with security breaches through cyberattacks, cyber intrusions or otherwise, as well as other significant disruptions of our information technology networks and related systems, which support our operations and our buildings; changes in senior management, changes in the Company's board of directors, and the loss of key personnel; the potential liability for uninsured losses, condemnation, or environmental issues; the potential liability for a failure to meet regulatory requirements, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and similar laws or the impact of any investigation regarding the same; the financial condition and liquidity of, or disputes with, joint venture partners; any failure to comply with debt covenants under debt instruments and credit agreements; any failure to continue to qualify for taxation as a real estate investment trust or meet regulatory requirements; potential changes to state, local, or federal regulations applicable to our business; material changes in dividend rates on common shares or other securities or the ability to pay those dividends; potential changes to the tax laws impacting real estate investment trusts and real estate in general; risks associated with climate change and severe weather events, as well as the regulatory efforts intended to reduce the effects of climate changes and investor and public perception of our efforts to respond to the same; the impact of newly adopted accounting principles on our accounting policies and on period-to-period comparisons of financial results; risks associated with possible federal, state, local, or property tax audits; and those additional risks and environmental or other factors discussed in reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the Company. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company cannot guarantee the accuracy of any such forward-looking statements contained in this press release, and the Company does not intend to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Contacts Roni Imbeaux Vice President, Finance and Investor Relations 404-407-1104 rimbeaux@cousins.com View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cousins-properties-announces-pricing-of-senior-notes-offering-302330787.html SOURCE Cousins Properties

jilihot allin88 login philippines The San Francisco 49ers nightmare of a 2024 campaign reached a new low in Week 12 when they suffered a blowout 38-10 loss at the hands of the Green Bay Packers. The Niners were without star quarterback Brock Purdy in this game, and the day after the tough defeat, head coach Kyle Shanahan provided an update on his injury status. Purdy popped up on the injury report last week with a shoulder injury, and it ended up preventing him from suiting up for San Fran in this crucial game. Brandon Allen filled in under center for Purdy, but as you can tell by the final score, he didn't play nearly well enough for the 49ers to have a shot at beating the Packers. Being without Purdy for this clash with Green Bay was obviously tough, but there was hope that this would only be a one week absence for him. A day after the blowout defeat, Shanahan shared that Purdy had done some light throwing on Monday, and that they will see how he feels on Wednesday after he rests on Tuesday. Per Nick Wagoner of ESPN, "49ers QB Brock Purdy did some light throwing today without issue, according to Kyle Shanahan. He'll rest tomorrow and then see how it feels as the week goes on." #49ers QB Brock Purdy did some light throwing today without issue, according to Kyle Shanahan. He'll rest tomorrow and then see how it feels as the week goes on. Injuries have been the story of the 2024 campaign for the 49ers, but losing Purdy for an extended period of time could be what officially pushes them over the edge. San Fran has managed to fend off these injuries all year long to at least stay in the playoff hunt, but they are on the verge of falling out of the NFC wild card hunt. © David Gonzales-Imagn Images The 49ers aren't going to force Purdy onto the field, but given how uncompetitive they were with Allen under center, it's clear that there's going to be some motivation to get him back into the fold as soon as possible. After throwing Monday, all eyes are going to be on Purdy to see how he feels on Wednesday. San Francisco is going to need Purdy, because they have another difficult contest on their schedule in Week 13, as they will be taking on the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football. Related: Packers Player Had Blunt Reaction to 49ers' Brock Purdy 'Excuse'Weekly Love Horoscope for December 30 – January 5, 2025

Top 25 College Hoops Picks Against the Spread – Tuesday, November 26

Rams Taking Slow Approach In Reinforcing Weak SecondaryNo one could have seen this coming. When USC lured Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma three years ago, the Trojans had visions of national championships, conference championships, west coast dominance, elite recruiting, and a rise back to national prominence. That's why they signed Riley to ten-year deal that was reportedly worth more than $100million. According to USA Today, Riley had the fourth highest salary during the 2024 season at a little over $10m, behind only the likes of Georgia 's Kirby smart, Clemson's Dabo Swinney and Texas ' Steve Sarkisian. Fast forward to today, and the Athletic has reported that UCF, a middling Big 12 program, has reached out to Riley's representatives about his availability and possible interest in becoming their next head coach. Of course Riley, isn't going to swap his USC hat for a UCF one, he said as much. "I'm a USC Trojan," Riley said when asked about being linked to other jobs. "This is the only place I want to be." The fact that Riley is even being asked about other jobs is alarming, and shows the shortcomings of his time at the University of Southern California . He went 11-3 in his first year at the helm, led by Heisman-winning quarterback, and future number one overall pick, Caleb Williams . They reached the Pac-12 championship, but fell to Utah, closing the door on their playoff hopes. A year later Riley and Williams scuttled to a disappointing 8-5 mark, good for a fourth place finish in the Pac-12. This season, it feels like the rug has been pulled from under Riley. With Williams now a Chicago Bear, the Trojans finished with a 6-6 record, and 4-5 in their first year in the Big Ten, tied for ninth in the conference. Overall Riley has accumulated a 25-14 record as head football coach of the USC Trojans. Good, but not what $100m is supposed to get you. That is why there are now murmurs of Riley being contacted by other programs. Riley's previous stint at Oklahoma, was much more successful, where he finished with a 55-10 record over his five seasons. He made the playoffs twice as head coach of the Sooners and also coached two Heisman-winning quarterbacks (and first overall picks), in Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray. There's no doubt Riley is an offensive mastermind when he has the right guy behind center. This year, the Trojans struggled to find consistent quarterback play, which ultimately led to their undoing. It's up to Riley to turn this once proud program around and back into the national spotlight. There's no reason, schools such as UCF, should be reaching out to inquire about Riley's availability. It's a bad look. Quite frankly, it's an embarrassing look.

Memphis beats No. 2 UConn 99-97 in overtime to tip off Maui Invitational LAHAINA, Hawaii (AP) — Tyrese Hunter scored 17 of his 26 points after halftime to lead Memphis to a 99-97 overtime win against two-time defending national champion and second-ranked UConn in the first round of the Maui Invitational. Hunter shot 7 of 10 from 3-point range for the Tigers, who were 12 of 22 from beyond at the arc as a team. PJ Haggerty had 22 points and five assists, Colby Rogers had 19 points and Dain Dainja scored 14. Tarris Reed Jr. had 22 points and 11 rebounds off the bench for the Huskies. Alex Karaban had 19 points and six assists, and Jaylin Stewart scored 16. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get updates and player profiles ahead of Friday's high school games, plus a recap Saturday with stories, photos, video Frequency: Seasonal Twice a weekPolice hunt for UnitedHealthcare CEO's masked killer after 'brazen, targeted' attack on NYC street NEW YORK (AP) — UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has been shot and killed in what police say is a “brazen, targeted attack” outside a Manhattan hotel where the health insurer was holding its investor conference. The shooting rattled the city and set off a massive dragnet hours before the annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting. Police say 50-year-old Brian Thompson was shot around 6:45 a.m. Wednesday as he walked alone to the New York Hilton Midtown from a nearby hotel. New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch says the shooter appeared to be “lying in wait for several minutes” before approaching Thompson from behind and opening fire. Police have not yet established a motive. UnitedHealthcare CEO kept a low public profile. Then he was shot to death in New York NEW YORK (AP) — Brian Thompson led one of the biggest health insurers in the US but was unknown to millions of people his decisions affected. The fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive on a midtown Manhattan sidewalk Wednesday became a mystery that riveted the nation. Police say it was a targeted killing. Thompson was 50. He had worked at the company for 20 years and had run health care giant UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s insurance business since 2021. It provides health coverage for more than 49 million Americans and brought in $281 billion in revenue last year. Thompson's $10.2 million annual compensation made him one of the company’s highest-paid executives. Supreme Court seems likely to uphold Tennessee's ban on medical treatments for transgender minors WASHINGTON (AP) — Hearing a high-profile culture-war clash, the Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to uphold Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The justices’ decision, not expected for several months, could affect similar laws enacted by another 25 states and a range of other efforts to regulate the lives of transgender people, including which sports competitions they can join and which bathrooms they can use. The case is being weighed by a conservative-dominated court after a presidential election in which Donald Trump and his allies promised to roll back protections for transgender people. The Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer warned a decision favorable to Tennessee also could be used to justify nationwide restrictions on transgender healthcare for minors. Hegseth fights to save Pentagon nomination as sources say Trump considers DeSantis WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s Pentagon pick, is fighting to hold on to his Cabinet nomination amid growing questions about his personal conduct as the president-elect’s team considers alternatives, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. But Hegseth says, “We’re not backing down one bit." The Trump transition team is concerned about Hegseth’s path to Senate confirmation and is actively looking at potential replacements, according to a person familiar with the matter. Hegseth is under pressure as senators weigh a series of allegations that have surfaced against him. Beyond DeSantis, there have been discussions about shifting Michael Waltz, who was named by Trump as his national security adviser, to the Defense Department Israeli strikes on a Gaza tent camp kill at least 21 people, hospital says KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian health official said Wednesday that at least 21 people were killed in Israeli strikes on a camp housing displaced people in Gaza. The Israeli military said it struck senior Hamas militants. The strikes hit in the Muwasi area, a sprawling coastal camp housing hundreds of thousands of displaced people. It came after Israeli forces struck targets in other areas of Gaza. According to Palestinian medics, strikes in central Gaza killed eight people, including four children. The war in Gaza is nearly 14 months old and showing no end in sight, despite international efforts to revive negotiations toward a ceasefire. South Korean President Yoon's martial law declaration raises questions over his political future SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning martial law declaration lasted just hours, but experts say it raised serious questions about his ability to govern for the remaining 2 1/2 years of his term. The opposition-controlled parliament overturned the edict, and his rivals on Wednesday took steps to impeach him. Yoon's move baffled many experts. One analyst called his action “political suicide.” Yoon’s political fate may depend on whether a large number of people in coming days take to the streets to push for his ouster. Yoon hasn't commented on the impeachment bid. But the political instability he unleashed could make it more difficult for his government to nurse a decaying economy. Police say searchers don’t expect to find woman in Pennsylvania sinkhole alive UNITY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (AP) — The search for a woman who is believed to have fallen into a sinkhole in western Pennsylvania has become a recovery effort after two treacherous days of digging through mud and rock produced no signs of life. Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said during a news conference Wednesday that authorities no longer believe they will find 64-year-old Elizabeth Pollard alive, but that the search for her remains continues. Limani says crews have seen "no signs of any form of life or anything.” Pollard was last seen alive Monday evening when she went out looking for her cat in the village of Marguerite, about 40 miles east of Pittsburgh. Two children wounded and gunman dead after shooting at Northern California school PALERMO, Calif. (AP) — Sheriff’s officials say two children have been wounded in a shooting at a small religious school in Northern California and the gunman is dead. A Butte County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson says Wednesday the wounded students were taken to hospitals in unknown condition after the shooting at Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo, north of Sacramento. The spokesperson says the suspect died after apparently shooting himself. A motive is unknown. French lawmakers vote to oust prime minister in the first successful no-confidence vote since 1962 PARIS (AP) — France’s far-right and left-wing lawmakers have joined together to vote on a no-confidence motion prompted by budget disputes that forces Prime Minister Michel Barnier and his Cabinet to resign. The National Assembly approved the motion by 331 votes. A minimum of 288 were needed. President Emmanuel Macron insisted he will serve the rest of his term until 2027. However, he will need to appoint a new prime minister for the second time after July’s legislative elections led to a deeply divided parliament. Macron will address the French on Thursday evening, his office said, without providing details. Barnier is expected to formally resign by then. White House says at least 8 US telecom firms, dozens of nations impacted by China hacking campaign WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House official says at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered the new details Wednesday about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that a number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could still grow.The choice of a policy adviser for artificial intelligence (AI) in the next Trump administration has sparked widespread debate online over the H-1B visa program, which conservatives are calling out as “abusive” and designed precisely to undercut wages of white-collar Americans. “Sriram Krishnan will serve as Senior Policy Advisor for Artificial Intelligence at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy,” President-elect Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social this week: Working closely with David Sacks, Sriram will focus on ensuring continued American leadership in A.I., and help shape and coordinate A.I. policy across Government, including working with the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. Sriram started his career at Microsoft as a founding member of Windows Azure. [Emphasis added] Krishnan’s appointment has sparked a widespread online debate over the H-1B visa program and employment-based green cards. For years, Breitbart News has chronicled the abuses against white-collar American professionals as a result of the H-1B visa program. There are about 650,000 H-1B visa foreign workers in the U.S. at any given moment. Americans are often laid off in the process and forced to train their foreign replacements, as highlighted by Breitbart News. One such major effort that Krishnan has backed is a green card giveaway, primarily to Indian nationals, where country caps for employment-based green cards would be eliminated. As a result, tech corporations would be massively rewarded for having imported mostly Indian nationals on H-1B visas to take white-collar American jobs. The push to end country caps has failed over and over again in Congress. Last month, in response to billionaire Elon Musk’s X post regarding the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Krishnan replied that “anything to remove country caps for green cards / unlock skilled immigration would be huge.” In a clip from Krishnan’s podcast, he is seen laughing as a guest suggests that Indian nationals ought to “just get married to a U.S. citizen, just make that happen” to secure green cards. Vivek Ramaswamy chimed in on the debate, suggesting that American companies like hiring foreign visa workers over college-educated Americans because “American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long...” In March Ramaswamy appeared on Krishnan’s podcast where he said legal immigration ought to center on filling “labor gaps” and “skills gaps.” “The sole objective of U.S. immigration policy should be to advance the interests of the U.S. citizens who are already here ... against that backdrop, what immigration policy makes sense?” Ramaswamy said: Great. Now, it becomes easy to implement — Where do we have labor gaps? Where do we have skills gaps? Where do we have people who can add to the productivity of the United States? People who bring a civic love of this country combined with skills and a work ethic and perhaps money and investment to be able to make that happen? That, I think, sets us up for a more rational path here. [Emphasis added] Conservatives and other dissenters online have fought back on the issue for days now. “The H-1B visa program is loved by tech companies because it helps hold down salaries of ultra high paid engineering jobs and foreign workers on these visas are way less likely to unionize or agitate for better work conditions,” journalist Lee Fang posted. “Both parties enable the abuse of the program.” Mike Cernovich and others have used online databases to debunk claims that the H-1B visa program brings only the “best and brightest” of geniuses to the United States to take jobs: As part of the online debate, many X users are reposting a Breitbart News interview with Vice President-elect J.D. Vance from 2022 when he was running for the open U.S. Senate seat for Ohio. In the interview, Vance made clear that Congress ought to prioritize overhauling the H-1B visa program to prevent corporations from enacting an outsourcing-offshoring scheme where Americans are laid off, forced to train their foreign replacements, and then those jobs eventually sent to countries like India altogether. “Generally speaking, a lot of the H-1B abuse we see is in the interests of the people hiring the [foreign visa] worker, who can undercut the wages of Americans, but is it in the interest of the 700 Ohioans who lost their jobs? Absolutely not,” Vance told Breitbart News at the time. “This is one of these issues where you actually need public policy to solve this problem because they’re taking advantage of a visa system that’s meant to ensure that American companies have the workers that they need — it’s not meant to undercut the wages of American workers in this country,” Vance said. “Unfortunately, that’s what the H-1B visa is just being used to do right now.” John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here .

Powersharing in Northern Ireland shows that Sinn Fein 'can hold it together' in the Republic of Ireland says Mary Lou McDonaldRodgers, who turns 41 next Monday, has been hampered at times during the Jets' 3-8 start by various injuries to his left leg, including a sore knee, sprained ankle and balky hamstring. Ulbrich said Monday the quarterback came back from the team's bye-week break ready to go. “All I can say, and you'd have to ask Aaron if he's fully healthy, but he's better off today than he's been as of late,” Ulbrich said. "So he's definitely feeling healthier than he has probably for the past month. A healthy Aaron Rodgers is the Aaron Rodgers we all love. “So, I'm excited about what that looks like.” NFL Network reported on Sunday that Rodgers, who missed all but four snaps last season with a torn left Achilles tendon , has declined having medical scans on his injured leg so he can continue to play. “I have not been informed of that, either way,” Ulbrich said. Rodgers suffered what NFL Network reported was a “significant” hamstring injury against Denver in Week 4. He then sprained his left ankle against Minnesota in London a week later. The four-time MVP has not been able to consistently move around during games as he has in the past, when extending plays and making things happen on the run became such a big part of his game. Rodgers said leading into New York's 28-27 loss to Indianapolis last Sunday that it was the healthiest he felt in a while. But he struggled against the Colts, finishing 22 of 29 for 184 yards after a brutally slow start during which he went 9 of 13 for just 76 yards. The Athletic reported last week that owner Woody Johnson broached the idea during a meeting with the coaching staff of having the banged-up Rodgers sit after the Jets' loss to Denver in Week 4. With Rodgers' struggles and perhaps compromised health the past few games, a hot debate on social media and sports talk shows during the past week has been whether the quarterback should take a seat in favor of Tyrod Taylor. But when asked if there has been any talk of shutting down Rodgers, Ulbrich replied flatly: “There has not.” In a follow-up question, the interim coach was asked if Rodgers will, in fact, be the Jets' starting quarterback at home Sunday against the Seahawks. “Absolutely,” Ulbrich said. He added that he didn't feel the need to sit down with Rodgers and address all the reports and chatter outside the facility. “No, I feel like we are on the same page,” the coach said. Last week, Ulbrich said he and his staff would take “a deep dive” into what the team could do better after losing seven of its past eight and being on the verge of missing the postseason for the 14th consecutive year. Ulbrich opted not to make any changes to the coaching responsibilities of his staff and he will continue to run the defense as the coordinator. He also said there would not be any personnel changes coming out of the bye, barring injuries. “But definitely, we created a really clear vision of where we need to improve and found some things,” Ulbrich said. “Obviously, you find the things that you’re not doing well, you need to improve upon them, but then also found some some things that I think we can really build upon. So I was excited in both ways.” Johnson fired general manager Joe Douglas last Tuesday, six weeks after he also dismissed coach Robert Saleh. On Monday, the team announced it would be assisted by The 33rd Team , a football media, analytics and consulting group founded by former Jets GM Mike Tannenbaum, in its searches for a general manager and coach. Ulbrich insisted that isn't creating an awkward situation for him, in particular, as he and his staff focus on the present while the organization begins planning for the future. “In all honesty, it’s not at all,” Ulbrich said. “My singular focus is just finishing the season off the right way, playing a brand of football we’re all proud of, myself included. And that starts with Seattle.” LB C.J. Mosley said he's “progressing” in his return from a herniated disk in his neck, but is still uncertain about his availability for Sunday. Mosley said Monday was the first time he put on a helmet since the injury occurred during pregame warmups against New England on Oct. 27. ... Ulbrich said the team is still evaluating LT Tyron Smith, who missed the game against Indianapolis with a neck ailment. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nflBy Kimberly Palmer, NerdWallet The investing information provided on this page is for educational purposes only. NerdWallet, Inc. does not offer advisory or brokerage services, nor does it recommend or advise investors to buy or sell particular stocks, securities or other investments. The start of a new year can bring a surge of motivation around setting new goals, including financial resolutions. One way to help those goals become reality, financial experts say, is to make them as specific as possible. Then, track your progress, while allowing flexibility for unexpected challenges. “It’s easier to track progress when we know where we are going,” says Sylvie Scowcroft, a certified financial planner and founder of The Financial Grove in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That’s why she encourages her clients to set clearly defined goals, often related to paying off a specific debt, saving a certain amount per month or improving their credit score. Here are more tips from financial experts about crafting 2025 financial goals : Trying to accomplish too much can feel overwhelming. Instead, pick your priorities, says Cathleen Tobin, CFP and owner of Moonbridge Financial Design in Rhinebeck, New York. She suggests focusing on those big, often emotionally-driven goals to find motivation. “It’s more compelling than just a number,” she says. For example, do you want to make sure you’re on track for retirement or save money for a house? “Start there.” Scowcroft says she sees clients get tripped up by selecting overly broad goals, such as “get better with money.” Instead, she encourages people to select specific action items, such as “sign up for a budgeting tool and set aside time each month to learn where my money is going.” That level of specificity provides direction so you know what steps to take next, she adds. For example, if your top priority is to become debt-free, then your specific goal might be to pay off an extra $200 of your debt balance each month. Tobin says labeling savings accounts so they correspond with goals can also help. An emergency fund could be named something like “Peace of mind in 2025,” so you remember why you’re saving every time you make a transfer. “It’s more motivating than just ‘emergency fund,’” Tobin says. Measuring your progress as the year unfolds is also a critical component of successful goal setting, Tobin says. She compares it to weight loss. If you want to lose 20 pounds by June, then you need to lose about a pound a week for the first six months of the year. Similarly, she says it helps to break savings goals into microsteps that specify what you need to do each week. Schedule a weekly or monthly check-in with yourself to make sure you are meeting those smaller goals along the way. You might want to review your debt payoff progress or check your credit score , for example. “Being able to break it down into steps that can be done each week or twice a month really helps,” Tobin says. If your goal is to save more money , then setting up an automatic transfer each month can help turn that goal into reality, as long as you know you have the money in your checking account to spare. “It reduces the mental load,” says Mike Hunsberger, CFP and owner of Next Mission Financial Planning in St. Charles, Missouri, where he primarily supports veterans and current members of the military. He recommends starting small to ease into the change. “I wouldn’t jump to double what you’re currently saving,” he says. For example, when it comes to saving in a retirement account, if you’re starting with a 3% contribution, you might want to bump it up to 4%, then slowly increase it from there. “My number one piece of advice is to start small, but make sure you scale over time,” Hunsberger adds. “Because it’s gradual, you probably won’t notice it impacting your lifestyle.” “Stay flexible,” Scowcroft says. “Part of it is just being kind to yourself and not being too rigid.” When unexpected challenges come up, such as a big unplanned expense, you might have to pause making progress on your goal and reset. You might even need to change your goal. Scowcroft says that doesn’t mean you “failed,” just that life changed your plans. Dwelling on any negativity won’t help your forward progress. Sharing your goals with a friend can also make it easier to reach them, Scowcroft says. “It really helps to have an accountability buddy,” she says. She suggests putting a regular “money date” with your friend on the calendar so you can ask each other how you’re doing, brainstorm any challenges or even budget together side-by-side . “It’s a fun excuse to meet up with a friend.” More From NerdWallet Cage-Free Egg Supply Takes Outsized Hit As Bird Flu Surges 4 Ways to Hit Your Family Savings Goals in 2025 What Trended in Personal Finance in 2024? Kimberly Palmer writes for NerdWallet. Email: kpalmer@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @kimberlypalmer. The article The Secret to Making Successful Financial New Year’s Resolutions originally appeared on NerdWallet . 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Greg Gumbel Dies: CBS Sports Anchor Was 78McGinley, whose death occurred on Monday, worked for more than 40 years in the Trinity College library, was well known in trade union circles having been a representative and activist involved with the Workers’ Union of Ireland, the Federated Workers’ Union of Ireland and then Siptu . He was also associated with a large number of labour movement campaigns and remained a member of the standing orders committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu). [ Ireland’s unions: ‘We’ve made a lot of mistakes and we haven’t been good at self-criticism’ Opens in new window ] Over the past decade he also ran Umiskin Press, a small independent publishing house specialising in titles about the Irish labour movement by the likes of former government minister Barry Desmond, ex Irish Times journalist Padraig Yeates and historian Francis Devine, who also edited many of the books. The company, which was due to launch its latest title this Friday, took its name from the townland in Kilcar, Co Donegal where McGinley had family roots. He was also a key figure in the Irish Labour History Society and helped organise many conferences and other events. A keen football supporter, McGinley was involved with the Republic of Ireland Supporters’ Club and travelled extensively abroad following the team. Reacting to the news of McGinley’s sudden passing, NUJ Irish secretary Séamus Dooley said he was “shocked and saddened” and that he “leaves a great legacy”. Ictu also paid tribute to him on social media. He is survived by his wife, Helen McGinley. Emmet Malone is Work Correspondent at The Irish TimesThe House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has asked the U.S. Treasury Department to reexamine the United States’ relationship with Hong Kong, given the CCP’s stronger hold on the city through the implementation of a 2020 update to the Hong Kong National Security Law. Led by committee chair Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), the lawmakers requested a briefing, pointing to evidence that Hong Kong may now be used by Russia, North Korea, and the Chinese regime to evade international sanctions and reroute financing for the Russian war. “Hong Kong has shifted from a trusted global financial center to a critical player in the deepening authoritarian axis of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Iran, Russia, and North Korea,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter published Nov. 25. “We must now question whether longstanding U.S. policy towards Hong Kong, particularly towards its financial and banking sector, is appropriate.” Hong Kong was given preferential treatment in the 1990s because it was understood to operate separately from mainland China, but this has changed, the lawmakers said. They pointed to condemnations of the CCP-directed Hong Kong policies by both the current and former State Departments as further indication that the executive branch believes Hong Kong to be under the CCP’s control. The lawmakers also pointed out that Hong Kong entities have already been sanctioned for aiding Russian war efforts. “The city has now become a global leader in practices such as importing and re-exporting banned Western technology to Russia, creating front companies for purchasing barred Iranian oil, facilitating the trade of Russian-sourced gold, and managing ‘ghost ships’ that engage in illegal trade with North Korea,” the letter reads. Hong Kong representatives did not respond to an inquiry from The Epoch Times by publication time. The commission advised Congress that Hong Kong’s role in global trade undermines international sanctions and national security efforts and also “exposes Western investors, financial institutions, and firms to financial and reputational risks when they do business in Hong Kong.” In addition to the PMLC designation, it recommended Congress examine the relationship between Hong Kong and United States authorities in enforcing export controls and sanctions. Chief among the concerns is Hong Kong’s updated National Security Law and companion legislation that criminalizes various forms of political assembly. Experts say the law’s broad and vague language, which puts treason and cooperation with international political organizations on the same footing, effectively puts Hong Kong under the direct control of the Chinese communist regime. The commission warned that the regime applies these laws extraterritorially, and the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong puts the safety of those who conduct business with it at risk. Just last week, Hong Kong courts sentenced 45 pro-democracy activists to as high as 10 years in prison under the updated National Security Law. “This week saw Hong Kong authorities, acting at the behest of the CCP, impose harsh and unjust prison sentences against courageous pro-democracy Hong Kongers,” he stated. “It is clear that Hong Kong’s legal system has been degraded and is controlled by the CCP.”

In a message to the American people, the King expressed “great sadness” at the news of Mr Carter’s death, describing him as “a committed public servant” who “devoted his life to promoting peace and human rights”. He added: “His dedication and humility served as an inspiration to many, and I remember with great fondness his visit to the United Kingdom in 1977. “My thoughts and prayers are with President Carter’s family and the American people at this time.” Mr Carter, a former peanut farmer, served one term in the White House between 1977 and 1981 and spent his post-presidency years as a global humanitarian, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. Sir Keir Starmer said Mr Carter had “lived his values in the service of others to the very end” through “decades of selfless public service”. Praising a “lifelong dedication to peace” that saw him win the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, Sir Keir added: “Motivated by his strong faith and values, President Carter redefined the post-presidency with a remarkable commitment to social justice and human rights at home and abroad.” Tributes to Mr Carter followed the announcement of his death by his family on Sunday, more than a year after he decided to enter hospice care. His son, Chip Carter, said: “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love.” Very sorry to hear of President Carter’s passing. I pay tribute to his decades of selfless public service. My thoughts are with his family and friends at this time. pic.twitter.com/IaKmZcteb1 — Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) December 29, 2024 US President Joe Biden, one of the first elected politicians to endorse Mr Carter’s bid for the presidency in 1976, said the world had “lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian”. He said: “Over six decades, we had the honour of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well. “With his compassion and moral clarity, 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.” Vice President Kamala Harris said Mr Carter “reminded our nation and the world that there is strength in decency and compassion”. “His life and legacy continue to inspire me — and will inspire generations to come,” she said. “Our world is a better place because of President Carter.” Other UK politicians also paid tribute to Mr Carter. Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said he was “an inspiration” who “led a truly remarkable life dedicated to public service with a genuine care for people”. Scottish First Minister John Swinney described the former president as “a good, decent, honest man who strove for peace in all that he did”, while Welsh First Minister said he was “a remarkable man” and “a humanitarian and scholar”. Former prime minister Sir Tony Blair said Mr Carter’s “life was a testament to public service”. He added: “I always had the greatest respect for him, his spirit and his dedication. He fundamentally cared and consistently toiled to help those in need.” Gordon Brown, another former prime minister, said it was a “privilege” to have known Mr Carter, who “will be mourned, not just in America, but in every continent where human rights are valued”. Mr Carter is expected to receive a state funeral featuring public observances in Atlanta, Georgia, and Washington DC before being buried in his hometown of Plains, Georgia. A moderate democrat born in Plains in October 1924, Mr Carter’s political career took him from the Georgia state senate to the state governorship and, finally, the White House, where he took office as 39th president in the wake of the Watergate scandal and the Vietnam War. His presidency saw economic disruption amid volatile oil prices, along with social tensions at home and challenges abroad including the Iranian revolution that sparked a 444-day hostage crisis at the US embassy in Tehran. But he also brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel, which led to a peace treaty between the two countries in 1979. After his defeat in the 1980 presidential election, he worked more than four decades leading The Carter Centre, which he and his late wife Rosalynn co-founded in 1982 to “wage peace, fight disease, and build hope”. Under his leadership, the Carter Center virtually eliminated Guinea Worm disease, which has gone from affecting 3.5 million people in Africa and Asia in 1986 to just 14 in 2023. Mrs Carter, who died last year aged 96, had played a more active role in her husband’s presidency than previous first ladies, with Mr Carter saying she had been “my equal partner in everything I ever accomplished”. Earlier this year, on his 100th birthday, Mr Carter received a private congratulatory message from the King, expressing admiration for his life of public service

Controversial ‘fish milk’ touted as a drink option with kids’ meals: ‘It just tastes like normal milk’DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke coach Manny Diaz says quarterback Maalik Murphy will face discipline "internally" after extending both of his middle fingers skyward in celebration after throwing a long touchdown pass early in the weekend win against Virginia Tech. Diaz said Monday that Murphy's exuberant gesture, caught on the ACC Network national broadcast, was directed at offensive coordinator Jonathan Brewer in the booth after a bit of practice "banter" from a few days earlier. Diaz said the Texas transfer just let his excitement get away from him but still called it "unacceptable in our program." "There was a practice in the middle of last week when we [were] throwing post after post after post, and we weren't completing them," Diaz said. "And it was again and again and again and again. And at the end of that, there was a remark made in jest that, 'If you throw a post for a touchdown in the game, then you can flick me off,' from Coach Brewer." Murphy's gesture came after he uncorked a deep ball from deep in Duke's own end and caught Eli Pancol perfectly in stride across midfield, with Pancol racing untouched for an 86-yard score barely 2 minutes into the game. As he began skipping downfield to celebrate, Murphy chest-bumped teammate Star Thomas and then extended both arms in the air with his middle fingers raised. Brewer said Monday he missed the gesture in real time, but then saw it on a replay moments later. "Some things you say on the field when you're coaching obviously isn't meant to be taken literally when you're trying to get after somebody in that world," Brewer said. Murphy threw for 332 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions in the 31-28 win for the Blue Devils (8-3, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who close the regular season at Wake Forest.Memphis fights off No. 2 UConn in OT in Maui Invitational thriller

By KENYA HUNTER, Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — As she checked into a recent flight to Mexico for vacation, Teja Smith chuckled at the idea of joining another Women’s March on Washington . As a Black woman, she just couldn’t see herself helping to replicate the largest act of resistance against then-President Donald Trump’s first term in January 2017. Even in an election this year where Trump questioned his opponent’s race , held rallies featuring racist insults and falsely claimed Black migrants in Ohio were eating residents’ pets , he didn’t just win a second term. He became the first Republican in two decades to clinch the popular vote, although by a small margin. “It’s like the people have spoken and this is what America looks like,” said Smith, the Los Angeles-based founder of the advocacy social media agency, Get Social. “And there’s not too much more fighting that you’re going to be able to do without losing your own sanity.” After Trump was declared the winner over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris , many politically engaged Black women said they were so dismayed by the outcome that they were reassessing — but not completely abandoning — their enthusiasm for electoral politics and movement organizing. Black women often carry much of the work of getting out the vote in their communities. They had vigorously supported the historic candidacy of Harris, who would have been the first woman of Black and South Asian descent to win the presidency. Harris’ loss spurred a wave of Black women across social media resolving to prioritize themselves, before giving so much to a country that over and over has shown its indifference to their concerns. AP VoteCast , a survey of more than 120,000 voters, found that 6 in 10 Black women said the future of democracy in the United States was the single most important factor for their vote this year, a higher share than for other demographic groups. But now, with Trump set to return to office in two months, some Black women are renewing calls to emphasize rest, focus on mental health and become more selective about what fight they lend their organizing power to. “America is going to have to save herself,” said LaTosha Brown, the co-founder of the national voting rights group Black Voters Matter. She compared Black women’s presence in social justice movements as “core strategists and core organizers” to the North Star, known as the most consistent and dependable star in the galaxy because of its seemingly fixed position in the sky. People can rely on Black women to lead change, Brown said, but the next four years will look different. “That’s not a herculean task that’s for us. We don’t want that title. ... I have no goals to be a martyr for a nation that cares nothing about me,” she said. AP VoteCast paints a clear picture of Black women’s concerns. Black female voters were most likely to say that democracy was the single most important factor for their vote, compared to other motivators such as high prices or abortion. More than 7 in 10 Black female voters said they were “very concerned” that electing Trump would lead the nation toward authoritarianism, while only about 2 in 10 said this about Harris. About 9 in 10 Black female voters supported Harris in 2024, according to AP VoteCast, similar to the share that backed Democrat Joe Biden in 2020. Trump received support from more than half of white voters, who made up the vast majority of his coalition in both years. Like voters overall, Black women were most likely to say the economy and jobs were the most important issues facing the country, with about one-third saying that. But they were more likely than many other groups to say that abortion and racism were the top issues, and much less likely than other groups to say immigration was the top issue. Despite those concerns, which were well-voiced by Black women throughout the campaign, increased support from young men of color and white women helped expand Trump’s lead and secured his victory. Politically engaged Black women said they don’t plan to continue positioning themselves in the vertebrae of the “backbone” of America’s democracy. The growing movement prompting Black women to withdraw is a shift from history, where they are often present and at the forefront of political and social change. One of the earliest examples is the women’s suffrage movement that led to ratification in 1920 of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution , which gave women the right to vote. Black women, however, were prevented from voting for decades afterward because of Jim Crow-era literacy tests, poll taxes and laws that blocked the grandchildren of slaves from voting. Most Black women couldn’t vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Black women were among the organizers and counted among the marchers brutalized on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, during the historic march in 1965 from Selma to Montgomery that preceded federal legislation. Decades later, Black women were prominent organizers of the Black Lives Matter movement in response to the deaths of Black Americans at the hands of police and vigilantes. In his 2024 campaign, Trump called for leveraging federal money to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in government programs and discussions of race, gender or sexual orientation in schools. His rhetoric on immigration, including false claims that Black Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating cats and dogs, drove support for his plan to deport millions of people . Tenita Taylor, a Black resident of Atlanta who supported Trump this year, said she was initially excited about Harris’ candidacy. But after thinking about how high her grocery bills have been, she feels that voting for Trump in hopes of finally getting lower prices was a form of self-prioritization. “People say, ‘Well, that’s selfish, it was gonna be better for the greater good,”’ she said. “I’m a mother of five kids. ... The things that (Democrats) do either affect the rich or the poor.” Some of Trump’s plans affect people in Olivia Gordon’s immediate community, which is why she struggled to get behind the “Black women rest” wave. Gordon, a New York-based lawyer who supported the Party for Socialism and Liberation’s presidential nominee, Claudia de la Cruz, worries about who may be left behind if the 92% of Black women voters who backed Harris simply stopped advocating. “We’re talking millions of Black women here. If millions of Black women take a step back, it absolutely leaves holes, but for other Black women,” she said. “I think we sometimes are in the bubble of if it’s not in your immediate circle, maybe it doesn’t apply to you. And I truly implore people to understand that it does.” Nicole Lewis, an Alabama-based therapist who specializes in treating Black women’s stress, said she’s aware that Black women withdrawing from social impact movements could have a fallout. But she also hopes that it forces a reckoning for the nation to understand the consequences of not standing in solidarity with Black women. “It could impact things negatively because there isn’t that voice from the most empathetic group,” she said. “I also think it’s going to give other groups an opportunity to step up. ... My hope is that they do show up for themselves and everyone else.” Brown said a reckoning might be exactly what the country needs, but it’s a reckoning for everyone else. Black women, she said, did their job when they supported Harris in droves in hopes they could thwart the massive changes expected under Trump. “This ain’t our reckoning,” she said. “I don’t feel no guilt.” AP polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVeaux and Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report. The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Switchbacks to host celebration party at Weidner Field following first-ever USL Championship title win

Lakers vs. Suns: Betting preview, odds, picks and predictionsBRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Supermarket giant Carrefour’s support for French farmers’ protests against a trade agreement between the European Union and the South American bloc Mercosur has sparked a strong reaction in Brazil, including a refusal to supply beef to Carrefour stores in Brazil. Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard announced in social media posts last week that the French company would stop buying beef from all Mercosur countries, which also include Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay. Bompard wrote that he agrees with French producers' arguments that Mercosur beef is an unfair competitor due to lower production costs resulting from fewer environmental and sanitary requirements. The executive encouraged other retailers to follow suit. Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture called Bompard's move protectionist, saying it was made “without any technical criteria.” The decision also angered Brazil's meatpackers. Though France makes up just a tiny sliver of Brazil’s beef exports, meatpackers worried that Carrefour’s decision would hurt its reputation in other markets. Beef giants JBS and Marfrig halted supplies last Friday to Carrefour's extensive supermarket chain in Brazil, including the food warehouse giant Atacadao. Both companies refused to comment on the boycott to The Associated Press, but Minister of Agriculture Carlos Fávaro confirmed it. “We support the reaction of the meatpackers. If Brazil ́s beef isn’t good enough for Carrefour’s shelves in France, it isn’t good enough for Carrefour’s shelves in Brazil either,” Faváro told Folha de S.Paulo newspaper on Monday. Carrefour Group in Brazil acknowledged the boycott in a statement, though it said there's not yet a shortage of beef in stores. It said it has “esteem and confidence in the Brazilian agricultural sector, with which it maintains a solid relationship and partnership.” “Unfortunately, the decision to suspend the meat supply has an impact on customers, especially those who rely on the company to supply their homes with quality and responsible products,” the statement said. “It is in constant dialogue in search of solutions that will make it possible to resume the supply of meat to its stores as quickly as possible, respecting the commitments it has to its more than 130,000 Brazilian employees and millions of Brazilian customers countrywide.” The backdrop for the conflict is the EU-Mercosur trade deal , which would increase agricultural imports to EU countries from South America. French farmers fear it will affect their livelihoods. An initial agreement was reached in 2019, but negotiations have faltered since then due to opposition that also includes some European governments. Brazil’s agribusiness sector also fears that the pending European Union Deforestation Regulation will outlaw the sale of forest-derived products within the EU’s 27-nation bloc if companies can’t prove their goods are not linked to deforestation. Its scope includes soy and cattle, Brazil’s top agricultural exports. Almost half of the country’s cattle is raised in the Amazon region, where 90% of deforested land since 1985 has turned into pasture, according to MapBiomas, a nonprofit network. The date of its implementation remains uncertain. The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .DETROIT (AP) — Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams will not be charged with a crime after he was found with a gun in a car driven by his brother, a prosecutor said Monday. The gun on the floor was registered to Williams, but he didn't have a concealed-carry permit. His brother did. Prosecutor Kym Worthy said Michigan law is “far from clear” when applied to the 1 a.m. traffic stop on Oct. 8. “We really could not recall any case that had facts that mirrored this case,” she said. Williams was riding in a car driven by his brother when Detroit police stopped the vehicle for speeding. Williams said one of two guns in the car belonged to him and was registered. But without a concealed-pistol license, known as a CPL, a Michigan gun owner typically must place the weapon in a closed case while in a vehicle. A violation is a felony. In this case, Williams' brother had a permit. “The CPL holder here was the driver and had care, custody and control of the car," Worthy said. “Guidance is needed for the future on how many weapons can a valid CPL say that they have control over.” Williams obtained a CPL on Nov. 6, a month later, attorney Todd Flood said. “My client is thankful and humbled by the hard work Kym Worthy and her team put into this matter,” Flood said. During the traffic stop, Williams was handcuffed and placed in a patrol car before officers released him with his gun instead of taking him to a detention center. Williams, a first-round draft pick in 2022, has 29 catches for 602 yards and four touchdowns this season. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLTORONTO - Losses in the tech sector led Canada’s main stock index lower in late-morning trading on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also fell. The S&P/TSX composite index was down 93.03 points at 24,753.79. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 437.35 points at 42,888.45. The S&P 500 index was down 86.37 points at 5,951.22, while the Nasdaq composite was down 402.43 points at 19,617.93. The Canadian dollar traded for 69.39 cents US compared with 69.51 cents US on Tuesday. The February crude oil contract was up 66 cents at US$70.28 per barrel and the February natural gas contract was up five cents at US$3.37 per mmBTU. The February gold contract was down US$19.70 at US$2.634.20 an ounce and the March copper contract was down less than a penny at US$4.12 a pound. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD)jilihot allin88 login registration 。

Newest Sacramento State football head coach Brennan Marion is no stranger to the Hornets’ green and gold colorway. Marion first donned the colors as head coach of the St. Patrick-St. Vincent High School football team in 2013. In Marion’s only season as a head coach at St. Pat’s, he led the Bruins to the first round of the playoffs. The team finished 5-6 overall in 2013 and lost a first-round playoff game to Piner. Marion resigned shortly afterwards to become the head coach at Waynesboro Area Senior High School in Pennsylvania. At Waynesboro, Marion dove deeper into his innovative ‘Go-Go’ offense and took it with him to eight different college coaching stops across the nation. The ‘Go-Go’ offense is a high-tempo, downhill run game that lines up two running backs next to the quarterback. It was most notably on display in his two seasons as the offensive coordinator at UNLV from 2023-2024. This past season, the Rebels ranked 35th in the FBS in total offense (425.8 yards per game) and 14th in scoring (36.2 points per game). Marion also worked with NFL wide receivers Jordan Addison and Xavier Worthy during his time as the wide receiver coach at the University of Texas and the University of Pittsburgh. After former Sac State head coach Andy Thompson stepped down, the Hornets sprung for the offensive guru and Marion accepted his first college head coaching job on Dec. 20. Marion is already off to a hot start in the transfer portal, bringing in multiple FBS transfers to Sac State. Some of the notable names include former Oregon State wide receiver Jordan Anderson and Tulsa quarterback Cardell Williams. Marion has also found success on the recruitment trail, drawing talent from the Bay Area. In a post on X, he expressed his appreciation for the region where he took his first head coaching role. “Vallejo or the Valley Jo or the home of Mac Dre or the Home of E-40 or as I say Springs Road! Has always been good to me!!! Bay Areaaaaa!!! That’s 2 from the soil! #GoGoSacramento,” Marion said in a post on X. Marion also has experience as a player. He was a wide receiver and was signed by the Miami Dolphins as an undrafted free agent in 2009, but never played in an official game. He played college football for Foothill, De Anza, and Tulsa. At Tulsa he set the single-season NCAA FBS yards-per-catch record in a single season at 31.9 and finished as the NCAA career leader at 28.7 yards-per-catch. He had back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons.

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‘Tis the season for a cup of cheer, the Holly Jolly Holiday Bar is here. The pop-up is now open at EP & LP in West Hollywood through Sunday, Dec. 22. The price per admission for the strictly 21 and over event starts at $23 and includes a 90-minute reservation and a welcome cocktail. Brunch is available on Saturday and Sunday at $50 per person and includes a 90-minute reservation, a main entree and a welcome cocktail. Tickets can be purchased at hollyjollybar.com . To help get into the holiday spirit, the halls will be decked with floor-to-ceiling tinsel, trimmings, ornaments, stockings, Christmas trees covered in lights and even some figurines of the big man himself, Santa Claus. Festive bargoers might enjoy a cocktail served in a Christmas-themed mug. Other drinks are decorated with candy canes or have red, green and white sprinkled rims. SEE ALSO: How the new Zero Lounge bar will serve Y2K nostalgia in Hollywood Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, this bar welcomes everyone to enjoy cocktails such as the Rum Rudolph Rum, Drummer Boy, Rockin’ Around, and Sleigh Ride, which is Mexican Hot Chocolate served with a toasted marshmallow. There are also two mocktail options: Silent Night and Let It Snow. The food options include burgers, loaded fries, turkey pot pie, and a lobster roll. For dessert, guests can enjoy the festive Loaded Brownie with chocolate sauce, sprinkles and ice cream. The Jolly Holly Holiday Bar is located at 603 N La Cienega Blvd, West Hollywood. Related ArticlesAs the season progresses, fans can expect more drama and excitement in the English Premier League. The battle for the top spot is far from over, with each team vying for supremacy and aiming to secure a coveted spot in the Champions League. With the competition fierce and the stakes high, every match will be crucial in determining the final standings at the end of the season.

Robert Eggers ’ spectacular “ Nosferatu ” opens with several pronounced seconds of perfect, crypt-like blackness, as if the director were adjusting his audience’s eyes to see in the dark. But the film that follows — luminously ashen where too many recent movies and TV shows have just been irritatingly dim — is flooded with a moonlight so lucid and alive that even the story’s most stygian moments might as well have been set at high noon. For all of its exquisite darkness, this “ Nosferatu ” is never the least bit difficult to see. The reason for that is simple: Eggers doesn’t want us to see in the darkness, he wants us to see the darkness itself. To recognize it not as the absence of light, but rather as a feral and undying force all its own — one that we carry within ourselves like a secret corseted in virtue. Faithful as it might seem to F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu,” Eggers’ lush and rapturously psychosexual riff on the same material isn’t a simple remake so much as a seductive reverse shot. Where the earlier film climaxes by casting the silhouette of a vampire against a solid wall, this new one starts by projecting the same image across the soft white curtains of its heroine’s bedroom window, as young Ellen Hutter’s ( Lily-Rose Depp ) midnight prayer for “a spirit of comfort” is answered by a hunger so close at hand that its appetite seems to be rooted within her own heart. Or perhaps the call is emanating from somewhere else in her body, as Ellen comes to the voice as much as it comes to her. The prologue might end with a paroxysm of violence, but first there are a few timid whimpers of nascent pleasure; Bill Skarsgård’s base and primal Count Orlok is a nightmare who arrives on the wings of a nocturnal emission. Despite Orlok’s prosthetic decrepitude and the plague-like toxicity of his love, what truly horrifies Ellen about him is that some unknown part of her nature craves his touch. Ellen’s special friend will come to assume increasingly corporeal form as the movie goes on, and Eggers won’t be able to stop himself from paying more literal homage to Murnau’s most famous shot by the time it’s over, but it’s the human woman — not the slumbering monstrosity she awakens from afar — whose silhouette will consume this film’s attention. As compelled by the fear of the self as Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” (and Murnau’s unauthorized adaptation of it) was by the fear of the other, this Jungian twist on the formative vampire story keeps its villain shrouded in shade in order to illustrate how its heroine is merely shrouded in light; she’s a living shadow play whose true curse is belonging to a pre-Victorian society that sees female desire as its own form of darkness. Ellen’s only salvation, such as it is, is that she was born into a “Nosferatu” capable of seeing her darkness so clearly. Modern in its perspective yet fetishistically accurate to its time, Eggers’ horny-as-hell but highly repressed “Nosferatu” is nothing if not the version of this story you would expect him to make. Like “The Witch” before it, the film renders sin with a puritanical sense of mortal danger. Like “The Northman,” this ultra-sincere “Nosferatu” is a stylized fable that shirks off the simplicity of its plot with a visceral physicality. Like “The Lighthouse,” it features a deliriously happy Willem Dafoe as a pipe-smoking kook who says things like “The night demon has supped your good wife’s blood” with the enthusiasm of a character all too happy to have that chance. And like all of Eggers’ films, of which “Nosferatu” is the richest and most fully realized, it draws a spellbinding power from the friction it finds between historical social mores and the eternal human thirsts they exist to keep in check. If “Nosferatu” sinks its fangs a tiny bit deeper than any of the director’s previous work, perhaps that’s because it’s tinged with a degree of tragic cruelty that Eggers has yet to allow in his “original” material. In stark contrast to the settler heroine of “The Witch,” who takes at least some joy in accepting the devil’s bargain to live deliciously, Ellen yearns to find her peace within the patriarchy. Her first thought after signing a covenant with Orlok’s disembodied voice isn’t to seek out his crypt across the Carpathian Mountains, but rather to settle down with the most basic man in Wisborg, Germany circa 1838: middle-class estate agent Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult), a handsome nobody whose cheekbones are higher than his wages. Ellen hopes that marrying Thomas will stop Orlok from calling out to her in the night, but her dear husband is equally seducible to his own simplest instincts. It’s Thomas whose ambition leads the vampire right to the Hutters’ front door, as his new boss — the bestial Herr Knock, played by a scenery and cast-chewing Simon McBurney — tasks him with journeying to Transylvania in order to finalize a real estate deal with a mysterious count from “an eccentric bloodline.” Providence? Ellen is the only person who seems to know better. “But he already has the job,” she whispers to the heavens after learning of Thomas’ audition-like first assignment, a throwaway moment that speaks volumes to what’s said and unsaid in their relationship. On the subject of that relationship, all we really know about it is that Ellen and Thomas seem to genuinely love each other — and that the children they intend to have one day would be born with jawlines sharper than any stake. There’s never any reason to think that a better husband would solve Ellen’s problems, in part because they share a palpably mutual attraction, even going so far as to make out on the floor of their rich friends’ mansion after a dinner party one evening (which seems like some pretty egregious PDA for the time period). Not that shipping magnate Friedrich Harding (a fantastically imperious Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his wife Anna (Emma Corrin) would think twice if they caught their houseguests snogging in semi-public; Friedrich is a “rutting goat” of a man, and Anna seems to have accepted a nearly permanent state of pregnancy as the only affordable price for her pleasure. Ellen has a more complicated relationship with her unarticulated lust, which is really just the expression of all that she wants but lacks permission to ask from life. Eggers’ broadly suggestive script doesn’t put too fine a point on the specifics of Ellen’s repression (she identifies Orlok as the manifestation of her shame, and insists that she has no need for salvation), but Depp’s revelatory performance ensures that the rest of the movie doesn’t have to. Pouty but headstrong, possessed but clinging to what’s left of her power, Depp plays Ellen as a young woman so at war with the foreignness of her own unconscious that at one point her tongue threatens to detach itself from the rest of her face, as though the muscles of her body were attempting to escape through her mouth. Orlok’s influence overcomes Ellen in a series of Butoh-inspired seizures equal parts Linda Blair and Kazuo Ôno, and there’s no small irony to the remarkable self-control Depp has to display in order to so convincingly wrestle with her character’s darkness, which concentrates inside of the poor newlywed like a blood clot. Alas, Baltic Germany’s medical establishment (embodied here by Ralph Ineson’s Dr. Wilhelm Sievers) only knows to treat repression with repression. At one point he prescribes his increasingly “hysterical” patient an even tighter sleeping corset, as though a few bits of firm lace might be enough to suffocate the devil inside of her. Dafoe’s Professor Albin Eberhart Von Franz has other, more progressive ideas, but his stranger methods trend more towards the occult than they do to modernity. And what good would modernity really do for a woman whose lifeforce so violently chafes against patriarchal control? Needless to say, Orlok will make the trip to Wisborg — arriving in Germany like a plague, with Thomas all but crawling back home to his wife behind him — long before Western society will learn to accept that denying human desire is less a collective victory than a personal self-defeat. There isn’t time enough for that to happen in this movie, though Eggers certainly holds out for as long as he can. The filmmaker smears this wet pinprick of a story across 132 lavishly illustrated minutes, its plot spread thin but its atmosphere suffused with fresh details. Like any great fairy tale, “Nosferatu” demands a certain degree of surrender. Like too few of the films adapted from them, it earns that surrender with the strength of its craft. The morbidly enchanting sequence where Hutter arrives at the foot of Orlok’s castle — the weary traveler rescued by a self-driving carriage — is the best kind of indulgence, as Jarin Blaschke’s ultra-desaturated 35mm cinematography steeps us in the pallid splendor of this twilight world until death itself seems like a beauty worth savoring. I don’t get the impression that Eggers is much of a gamer, but few movies have ever come so close to capturing the feel of “Bloodborne” on the big screen. Wisborg isn’t especially vast, but the four city blocks that Eggers’ team created on a Prague soundstage are as evocative as a snow globe, and only seem to become more so whenever Ellen begins to shake. Eggers allows himself a handful of conventional horror scenes, but all of them — save for a few tedious bits highlighting Knock’s use to Orlok, and a “Last Voyage of the Demeter” sequence that’s short on fresh ideas — are enhanced by their extraordinary manipulation of shadow, which elevates standard jolts into a vivid dance between id and ego. (I can’t remember the last time a fake-out scare was so rewarding.) There’s hardly a millisecond of this movie that isn’t measuring the distance between people and the darkness they disavow within themselves, an effect so palpable that Orlok himself comes to feel somewhat irrelevant to the story he sets into motion. Eggers certainly loves the guy, and Skarsgård’s ultra-committed performance allows the film to enjoy a contagious pleasure in returning the vampire archetype to its more bestial origins. It also allows Eggers’ “Nosferatu” — a film more interested in psychic anxiety than sociopolitical prejudice — to untether its vampire from the anti-semitic tropes that Murnau’s version was forced to contend with. This Orlok is a more carnal force than ever before (it’s rare that we get to see Dracula’s flaccid dick), but whatever sex appeal his raw animalism and thick mustache might hold for certain audiences is offset by rotting back flesh and a general rejection of aristocratic charm. If the makeup is impressive, Skarsgård’s undead baritone is what most brings the undead character to life, his every word of dialogue sounding as though it’s just been rolled across the river Styx. If Skarsgård doesn’t make the same impression as Max Schreck, that’s largely because Eggers’ adaptation doesn’t give him much of a chance to emerge from the periphery. While reducing Orlok to an appetite is what allows “Nosferatu” to focus its energy on Ellen, the vampire is such a fantastic representation of Mrs. Hutter’s shadow that he struggles to take shape in her absence. Of course, that’s not the fatal flaw it might seem — not in a film so wholly enthralled by the question of where “evil” comes from, nor one so gloriously capable of illustrating why feeding our darkness is the best method we have of bringing it to light. Focus Features will release “Nosferatu” in theaters on Christmas Day . Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film reviews and critical thoughts? Subscribe here to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best new reviews and streaming picks along with some exclusive musings — all only available to subscribers.GENEVA (AP) — World Cup sponsor Bank of America teamed with FIFA for a second time Tuesday, signing for the Club World Cup that still has no broadcast deals just over six months before games start. Bank of America became FIFA’s first global banking partner in August and sealed a separate deal for a second event also being played in the United States, two days before the group-stage draw in Miami for the revamped 32-team club event . It features recent European champions Real Madrid, Manchester City and Chelsea. “FIFA is going to take America by storm and we’re going to be right at their side,” the bank’s head of marketing, David Tyrie, said in a telephone interview Tuesday. Bank of America joins 2026 World Cup sponsors Hisense and Budweiser brewer AB InBev in separately also backing the club event, and more deals are expected after Saudi Arabia is confirmed next week as the 2034 World Cup host. While games at the next World Cup, co-hosted with Canada and Mexico, will be watched by hundreds of millions globally mostly on free-to-air public networks, the Club World Cup broadcast picture is unclear. FIFA has promised hundreds of millions of dollars in prize money for the 32 clubs to share but is yet to announce any broadcast deals for the month-long tournament. It is expected to land on a streaming service. “You have to think about how you are going to connect with these fans,” Tyrie told the Associated Press from Boston. “TV is one, sure, social media is a big avenue. “The smart marketing capabilities are able to say ‘Hey, we need to tilt this one a little bit more away from TV-type marketing into social-type marketing.’ We have got a pretty decent strategy that we’re putting in place to do activation.” Engaging Bank of America’s customers and 250,000 employees are key to that strategy, Tyrie said. “It’s going to be for our clients, and entertainment, it’s going to be for our employees in creating excitement. All of the above.” The Club World Cup will be played in 12 stadiums across 11 cities, including Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C, and Lumen Field where the hometown Seattle Sounders play three group-stage games. European powers Madrid, Man City and Bayern Munich lead a 12-strong European challenge. Teams qualified by winning continental titles or posting consistently good results across four years of those competitions. The exception is Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami, who FIFA gave the entry reserved for a host nation team in October based on regular season record without waiting for the MLS Cup final. LA Galaxy hosts New York Red Bulls playing for that national title Saturday. Messi’s team opens the FIFA tournament June 15 in the Miami Dolphins’ Hard Rock Stadium and will play its three group games in Florida. “The more brand players you bring in, the bigger the following you have got,” Tyrie acknowledged, though adding Messi being involved was “not a make or break for the event.” The Club World Cup final is July 13 at Met Life Stadium near New York, which also will host the World Cup final one year later. AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccerTonal Partners with Truemed to Expand Access to Strength Training Through HSA/FSA Eligibility

As the blizzard approaches and the first snowflakes begin to fall, it serves as a reminder to appreciate the beauty and unpredictability of nature, and to be grateful for the warmth and safety of home. Stay safe, stay warm, and remember to check on vulnerable neighbors and loved ones during this challenging time. Together, we can weather the storm and emerge stronger on the other side.Traveller planning appeal among this week's public notices

Carsley good, Moyes bad as Leicester City told to learn lesson after Steve Cooper sacking

2 chicken jollibee Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that the number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could grow. The U.S. believes the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden was briefed on the findings and the White House “made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack Tuesday after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages Wednesday. White House officials believe the hacking was regionally targeted and the focus was on very senior government officials. Federal authorities confirmed in October that hackers linked to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. The number of countries impacted by the hack is currently believed to be in the “low, couple dozen,” according to a senior administration official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said they believed the hacks started at least a year or two ago. The suggestions for telecom companies released Tuesday are largely technical in nature, urging encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to deter cyber intrusions. If implemented, the security precautions could help disrupt the operation, dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it harder for China or any other nation to mount a similar attack in the future, experts say. Neuberger pointed to efforts made to beef up cybersecurity in the rail, aviation, energy and other sectors following the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline . “So, to prevent ongoing Salt Typhoon type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply a similar minimum cybersecurity practice,” Neuberger said. The cyberattack by a gang of criminal hackers on the critical U.S. pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, sent ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial confirmed it paid $4.4 million to the gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems as it scrambled to get the nation's fuel pipeline back online.

House Democrats Jim McGovern of Massachusetts and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut say their Republican colleagues in Congress caved to the demands of Elon Musk , sinking a bipartisan government funding bill that would have regulated U.S. investments in China. > Philadelphia news 24/7: Watch NBC10 free wherever you are Congress passed a separate stopgap funding bill over the weekend, averting a government shutdown. In a series of posts on X, McGovern said more could have been accomplished. The scrapped provision "would have made it easier to keep cutting-edge AI and quantum computing tech — as well as jobs — in America," he wrote. "But Elon had a problem." Tesla , run by Musk, is the only foreign automaker to operate a factory in China without a local joint venture. Tesla also built a battery plant down the street from its Shanghai car factory this year, and aims to develop and sell self-driving vehicle technology in China. "His bottom line depends on staying in China's good graces," McGovern wrote about Musk. "He wants to build an AI data center there too — which could endanger U.S. security. He's been bending over backwards to ingratiate himself with Chinese leaders." SpaceX, Musk's aerospace and defense contractor, has reportedly withheld its Starlink satellite internet service over Taiwan at the request of Chinese and Russian leaders. Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy that Beijing claims as its territory. Taiwan's status is one of the biggest flashpoints in U.S.-China relations. DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, wrote in a letter to Congress on Friday that Musk needs "Chinese government approvals for his company's projects in the country." It's concerning, that Musk "has ingratiated himself with Chinese Communist Party leadership," she wrote. In the letter, DeLauro referred to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO as "President" Musk, alluding to the fact that the world's richest person began railing against the prior funding bill on Wednesday, before President-elect Donald Trump came out with a statement of his own. Trump had wanted the GOP to sink the bill, and issue a new one that would raise the debt ceiling so he could avoid that fight during the start of his second term in office. The stopgap funding bill, which President Joe Biden signed on Saturday, did not include the two-year suspension of the U.S. debt limit that Trump was seeking. Musk responded to DeLauro's concerns by calling her an "awful creature" in a post on X. After acquiring Twitter in 2022, Musk rebranded it X and used it to help propel Trump back into the White House, becoming a close adviser and major backer to the incoming president along the way. Musk contributed $277 million to the Trump campaign and other Republican causes during the 2024 cycle, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Since the election in November, Musk has become a nearly constant presence at Trump's side, including in meetings with foreign leaders . Trump appointed Musk to co-lead a group that's not yet formed, but will be tasked with finding ways to cut regulations, personnel and budgets. WATCH: Musk's influence on governmentPALERMO, Calif. (AP) — There was a shooting Wednesday at a Northern California elementary school and the suspect is dead, sheriff’s officials say. Deputies were “on scene of an active incident involving a shooting” at Feather River School of Seventh-Day Adventists in Palermo, the Butte County Sheriff's Office said on the social platform X. It wasn’t immediately known if anyone at the school was hurt. “The suspected shooter is deceased,” the post said. A phone call and email to the sheriff’s department were not immediately returned. A representative from the Butte County Fire Department did not immediately have any information about the shooting. Students were being taken to the Oroville Church of the Nazarene to be reunited with their families, the sheriff's office said. Palermo — home to about 5,500 people — is about 65 miles (104 km) north of Sacramento. The Associated Press

US stocks surge to records, shrugging off upheaval in South Korea, France

WASHINGTON — A top White House official said Wednesday at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations were impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger offered new details about the breadth of the sprawling Chinese hacking campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans. FILE - The American and Chinese flags wave at Genting Snow Park ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics, in Zhangjiakou, China, on Feb. 2, 2022. A top White House official on Wednesday said at least eight U.S. telecom firms and dozens of nations have been impacted by a Chinese hacking campaign. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, File) Neuberger divulged the scope of the hack a day after the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued guidance intended to help root out the hackers and prevent similar cyberespionage in the future. White House officials cautioned that the number of telecommunication firms and countries impacted could grow. The U.S. believes the hackers were able to gain access to communications of senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures through the hack, Neuberger said. “We don’t believe any classified communications has been compromised,” Neuberger added during a call with reporters. She added that Biden was briefed on the findings and the White House “made it a priority for the federal government to do everything it can to get to the bottom this.” US officials recommend encrypted messaging apps amid "Salt Typhoon" cyberattack, attributed to China, targeting AT&T, Verizon, and others. The Chinese embassy in Washington rejected the accusations that it was responsible for the hack Tuesday after the U.S. federal authorities issued new guidance. “The U.S. needs to stop its own cyberattacks against other countries and refrain from using cyber security to smear and slander China,” embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. The embassy did not immediately respond to messages Wednesday. White House officials believe the hacking was regionally targeted and the focus was on very senior government officials. Federal authorities confirmed in October that hackers linked to China targeted the phones of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, along with people associated with Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. The number of countries impacted by the hack is currently believed to be in the “low, couple dozen,” according to a senior administration official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity under rules set by the White House, said they believed the hacks started at least a year or two ago. The suggestions for telecom companies released Tuesday are largely technical in nature, urging encryption, centralization and consistent monitoring to deter cyber intrusions. If implemented, the security precautions could help disrupt the operation, dubbed Salt Typhoon, and make it harder for China or any other nation to mount a similar attack in the future, experts say. Trump's pick to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel was allegedly the target of cyberattack attempt by Iranian-backed hackers. Neuberger pointed to efforts made to beef up cybersecurity in the rail, aviation, energy and other sectors following the May 2021 ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline . “So, to prevent ongoing Salt Typhoon type intrusions by China, we believe we need to apply a similar minimum cybersecurity practice,” Neuberger said. The cyberattack by a gang of criminal hackers on the critical U.S. pipeline, which delivers about 45% of the fuel used along the Eastern Seaboard, sent ripple effects across the economy, highlighting cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s aging energy infrastructure. Colonial confirmed it paid $4.4 million to the gang of hackers who broke into its computer systems as it scrambled to get the nation's fuel pipeline back online. Picture this: You're on vacation in a city abroad, exploring museums, tasting the local cuisine, and people-watching at cafés. Everything is going perfectly until you get a series of alerts on your phone. Someone is making fraudulent charges using your credit card, sending you into a panic. How could this have happened? Cyberattacks targeting travelers are nothing new. But as travel has increased in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so has the volume of hackers and cybercriminals preying upon tourists. Financial fraud is the most common form of cybercrime experienced by travelers, but surveillance via public Wi-Fi networks, social media hacking, and phishing scams are also common, according to a survey by ExpressVPN . Spokeo consulted cybersecurity sources and travel guides to determine some of the best ways to protect your phone while traveling, from using a VPN to managing secure passwords. Online attacks are not the only type of crime impacting travelers—physical theft of phones is also a threat. Phones have become such invaluable travel aids, housing our navigation tools, digital wallets, itineraries, and contacts, that having your phone stolen, lost, or compromised while abroad can be devastating. Meanwhile, traveling can make people uniquely vulnerable to both cyber and physical attacks due to common pitfalls like oversharing on social media and letting your guard down when it comes to taking risks online. Luckily, there are numerous precautions travelers can take to safeguard against cyberattacks and phone theft. Hackers can—and do—target public Wi-Fi networks at cafés and hotels to gain access to your personal information or install malware onto your device, particularly on unsecured networks. Travelers are especially vulnerable to these types of cybersecurity breaches because they are often more reliant on public Wi-Fi than they would be in their home countries where they have more robust phone plans. This reliance on public, unsecured networks means travelers are more likely to use those networks to perform sensitive tasks like financial transfers, meaning hackers can easily gain access to banking information or other passwords. One easy way to safeguard yourself against these breaches is to use a virtual private network, or VPN, while traveling. VPNs are apps that encrypt your data and hide your location, preventing hackers from accessing personal information. An added bonus is that VPNs allow you to access websites that may be blocked or unavailable in the country you are visiting. To use a VPN, simply download a VPN app on your phone or computer, create an account, choose a server, and connect. Pickpockets, scammers, and flagrant, snatch-your-phone-right-out-of-your-hand thieves can be found pretty much everywhere. In London, for instance, a staggering 91,000 phones were reported stolen to police in 2022 , breaking down to an average of 248 per day, according to the BBC. Whether you're visiting a crowded tourist attraction or just want peace of mind, travel experts advise taking precautions to make sure your phone isn't physically stolen or compromised while traveling. There are several antitheft options to choose from. If you want a bag that will protect your phone from theft, experts recommend looking for features like slash-resistant fabric, reinforced shoulder straps, hidden zippers that can be locked, and secure attachment points, like a cross-body strap or a sturdy clip. For tethers, look for those made of tear-resistant material with a reinforced clip or ring. If your phone falls into the wrong hands, there's a good chance you won't be getting it back. Out of those 91,000 phones stolen in London in 2022, only 1,915 (or about 2%) were recovered. The good news is that you can take precautions to make the loss of your phone less devastating by backing up your data before you travel. With backed-up data, you can acquire a new device and still access your photos, contacts, messages, and passwords. Moreover, if you have "Find My Device" or "Find My Phone" enabled, you can remotely wipe your stolen phone's data so the thief cannot access it. It's safest to back up your data to a hard drive and not just the cloud. That way, if you have to wipe your device, you don't accidentally erase the backup, too. In order for the previous tip on this list to work, "Find My Phone" must be turned on in advance, but remotely wiping your device isn't the only thing this feature allows you to do. The "Find My Phone" feature enables you to track your device, as long as it's turned on and not in airplane mode. This is particularly helpful if you misplaced your phone or left it somewhere since it can help you retrace your steps. While this feature won't show you the live location of a phone that has been turned off, it will show the phone's last known location. With "Find My Phone," you can also remotely lock your phone or enable "Lost Mode," which locks down the phone, suspends any in-phone payment methods, and displays contact information for returning the phone to you. If your phone was stolen, experts caution against taking matters into your own hands by chasing down the thief, since this could land you in a potentially dangerous situation and is unlikely to result in getting your phone back. Respond: Write a letter to the editor | Write a guest opinion Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly.

Mbappé enduring 'difficult moment' as he misses another penalty kick and Madrid loses to AthleticAustralia is banning social media for people under 16. Could this work elsewhere — or even there?A woman was pulled from the icy waters of a Stittsville pond on Wednesday morning. Ottawa Fire Services say they were called after police responded to reports of a person in the water in the 500 block of Nordmann Fir Court near Terry Fox Drive at about 10:50 a.m. An initial investigation found the woman fell through after trying to rescue her dog on the ice, according to Ottawa Fire spokesperson Nick Defazio. Ottawa paramedics say the elderly woman inhaled some water and had symptoms of hypothermia. She was taken to hospital in serious condition. Ottawa Fire Services is reminding residents to be cautious around icy waters as temperatures begin to dip. Residents should call 911 if a person or animal falls into the water and should never attempt a rescue themselves, the fire service says. Shopping Trends The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us. 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Warm, wet winter expected in much of Canada, say forecasters Federal forecasters expect a warmer-than-normal start to winter in most of Canada, with more precipitation than usual in parts of the country. Atlantic Body found in burned vehicle in Pictou County identified as missing N.S. woman Nova Scotia RCMP has identified the bodies found in a burned vehicle in Pictou County last month as a missing Truro woman and a man from Alberta. A province-by-province look at what to expect from Thursday's storm An early December storm moving across northern New Brunswick Thursday will bring the Maritime provinces a mix of snow, rain, and high wind. Traffic tensions: Halifax Transit patrons and drivers frustrated by delays Halifax Transit patrons and drivers are expressing frustration about long waits and delays. 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Saskatoon Saskatoon boy, 16, faces first-degree murder charge in death of woman found outside the Copper Mug A 16-year-old boy faces a first-degree murder charge in the case of a woman found dead in an 8th Street parking lot last month. Saskatchewan maintains dismal status as leader in spread of HIV, with no provincial strategy in place Advocates for Saskatchewan’s HIV-positive residents are calling for a provincial strategy to support those living with the virus, and to help stop its spread. Contraband worth over $200,000 seized at Saskatchewan Penitentiary The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) says staff at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary seized a package containing contraband and unauthorized items from the Prince Albert-based facility. Vancouver BREAKING | Suspect shot after 'number of people' stabbed in downtown Vancouver: police A 'number of people' were stabbed in downtown Vancouver Wednesday before a suspect was shot by police, authorities say. 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Environment Canada is warning travellers that dense fog is creating near-zero visibility in parts of southwestern British Columbia on Wednesday. Kelowna Study of 2023 Okanagan wildfires recommends limiting development in high-risk areas A study into the devastating wildfires that struck British Columbia's Okanagan region in 2023 has recommended that government and industry limit development in high-fire-risk areas. Kelowna, B.C., to host the Memorial Cup in the spring of 2026 The Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets will host the Memorial Cup in the spring of 2026, the Canadian Hockey League said Wednesday. 545 vehicles impounded in 332 days: BC Highway Patrol pleads for drivers to slow down Mounties with the BC Highway Patrol in Kelowna say they've impounded more than 545 vehicles for excessive speed and aggressive driving so far this year. That works out to more than 1.6 per day. Stay Connected

A study by the international firm Bloom Consulting indicates a remarkable growth in searches in both sectors. SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica , Dec. 4, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A new analysis of Costa Rica's identity and digital footprint reveals that the country has consolidated its position by showing significant growth in tourism and exports, according to the 2022-2023 study conducted by Bloom Consulting for esencial COSTA RICA . Based on more than 12.4 million searches, this report highlights how Costa Rica has managed to capture global interest in key areas such as tourism, investment, and exports. In addition, it underlines the country's alignment with the principles of sustainability, a central issue for Costa Rica at the global level. In particular, the aspects of renewable energy, carbon neutral and sustainable products occupy a prominent place in international searches, reflecting the growing perception of the country as a leader in the fight against climate change and in the use of clean technologies, aligning with the 2035 Strategy of esencial COSTA RICA that seeks to consolidate the country as a world leader in sustainability. "This fingerprint study is an invaluable tool to understand how Costa Rica is perceived globally and which aspects generate the most interest in key sectors. It allows us to fine-tune our strategies, projecting the value of Costa Rica in a way that connects with those seeking authentic and reliable experiences in a destination of quality and sustainability, " commented Adriana Acosta , Director of esencial COSTA RICA . Tourism-related searches reached 11 million, positioning Costa Rica as one of the most attractive destinations in the world. The United States leads with almost 50% of these searches, followed by Canada and Germany . Ecotourism, surfing, and luxury tourism niches remain strategic, and searches related to sustainable activities, such as bird watching, hiking, and tourism in national parks. In addition to its strong performance in tourism, Costa Rica has recorded a significant 8% increase in export-related searches. Products such as coffee, flowers and cocoa are the most sought after, with notable increases such as 20% in cocoa searches and 16% in coffee. This shows the competitiveness of Costa Rican exportable supply in international markets, particularly in Europe and North America . Investment searches grew 17%, highlighting topics such as "labor costs," "port infrastructure," and "clean energy." These data confirm the growing interest of international investors in Costa Rica , positioning it as an attractive destination for the development of its operations. One of the highlights of the study is the strength of Costa Rica's digital footprint. Content generated by official sources in the country appears in 83% of searches, which ensures that international perception is aligned with Costa Rica's real offer. The institutions that are part of the governance of the Country Brand play a key role in this positioning, managing reliable and up-to-date information in strategic sectors such as tourism, investment and exports. The analysis also shows how Costa Rica has recovered and surpassed pre-pandemic levels of global interest, particularly in tourism, with a 42% growth in searches. This increase is driven by the reactivation of tourism in key markets such as the United States and Europe , which indicates a strong return of this activity after the pandemic. "One of the objectives of the 2035 Strategy of esencial COSTA RICA is for our country to consolidate its global positioning as an example of sustainability and fight against climate change; and this new digital footprint study allows us to continue evaluating the perceptions of consumers who seek Costa Rica for different objectives, to continue working on those messages," Acosta concluded. With a robust digital identity and an effective content strategy, Costa Rica continues to consolidate its presence in key markets, attracting both tourists and investors and exporters from all over the world, which generates new opportunities for economic development and well-being for Costa Ricans. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/2572530/shutterstock_1703256913.jpg

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says his party will not support a Liberal plan to give Canadians a GST holiday and $250 unless the government expands eligibility for the cheques, saying the rebate leaves out “the most vulnerable.” The Liberals announced a plan last week to cut the federal sales tax on a raft of items like toys and restaurant meals for two months, and to give $250 to more than 18.7 million Canadians in the spring. Speaking after a Canadian Labour Congress event in Ottawa, Singh says he’s open to passing the GST legislation, but the rebate needs to include seniors, students, people who are on disability benefits and those who were not able to work last year. Singh says he initially supported the idea because he thought the rebate cheques would go to anyone who earned under $150,000 last year. But the so-called working Canadians rebate will be sent to those who had an income, leaving out people Singh says need the help. The government intends to include the measures in the fall economic statement, which has not yet been introduced in the House of Commons. The proposed GST holiday would begin in mid-December, lasting for two months. It would remove the GST on prepared foods at grocery stores, some alcoholic drinks, children’s clothes and toys, Christmas trees, restaurant meals, books, video games and physical newspapers. A privilege debate has held up all government business in the House since late September, with the Conservatives pledging to continue a filibuster until the government hands over unredacted documents related to misspending at a green technology fund. The NDP said last week they had agreed to pause the privilege debate in order to pass the legislation to usher in the GST holiday. Singh said Tuesday that unless there are changes to the proposed legislation, he will not support pausing the debate. The Bloc Québécois is also pushing for the rebates to be sent to seniors and retirees.While Black Friday and Cyber Monday already ended, many of the best deals we've ever seen are still available. Such is the case of the iRobot Roomba Combo Essential , which is $115 off at Best Buy, bringing its price down from $275 to only $160. This is the lowest price we've seen on this Roomba, which is an entry-level robot vacuum and mop combination. Also: Better than Ring? This video doorbell has all the benefits, no monthly fees, and is on sale The Essential line is iRobot's most affordable lineup of robot vacuums. These devices feature top of the line technology with simplified operation. While they don't have the flagship Roomba's dual rubber brushes for suction, they have an innovative v-shaped roller brush that prevents tangles and doesn't get stuck as easily as traditional brushes. iRobot built on the Roomba 600 Series to give the new budget-friendly Essential vacuum 20 times more suction power and 25% better pickup on hard floors. The Roomba Combo Essential also features a 120-minute battery life and the ability to clean in neat rows for better efficiency. While $160 doesn't buy a fully autonomous, hands-free cleaning experience that you'd get when paying over $1,000, you still get iRobot technology and customization power in a budget-friendly package. The Roomba Combo Essential lets you customize suction and liquid settings, view Clean Map reports, and access iRobot OS automations. Also: Get an Arlo 2K battery-powered security camera at 60% off The Combo Essential does vacuum and mop but it requires user intervention to manually empty the dustbin and add water, as well as to wash and dry the mop pad after each cleaning. For most, this is a small inconvenience for one of the most affordable yet valuable robot vacuus on the market. The $160 deal is unbeatable for the Roomba Combo Essential , so if you have a lot of hard floors in your home and want to put away the mop and bucket, this is one way to get the most bang for your buck. When will this deal expire? While many sales events feature deals for a specific length of time, deals are on a limited-time basis, making them subject to expire anytime. ZDNET remains committed to finding, sharing, and updating the best offers to help you maximize your savings so you can feel as confident in your purchases as we feel in our recommendations. Our ZDNET team of experts constantly monitors the deals we feature to keep our stories up-to-date. If you missed out on this deal, don't worry -- we're always sourcing new savings opportunities at ZDNET.com . Best Cyber Monday deals Best Cyber Monday TV deals Best Cyber Monday streaming deals Best Cyber Monday AirPods deals

CORRECTION – iCAD Advances Fight Against Breast Cancer with FDA-cleared, Next-Generation AI Solutions and ProFound Health Partnership with Cascaid Health at RSNA 2024