
Majority of US voters support Trump's policy plans for futureGovernorship not family inheritance’ – Lagos PDP rejects Seyi Tinubu endorsementAP News Summary at 3:38 p.m. EST
Vikings waive former starting cornerback Akayleb Evans in another blow to 2022 draft class
The TOI Entertainment Desk is a dynamic and dedicated team of journalists, working tirelessly to bring the pulse of the entertainment world straight to the readers of The Times of India. No red carpet goes unrolled, no stage goes dark - our team spans the globe, bringing you the latest scoops and insider insights from Bollywood to Hollywood, and every entertainment hotspot in between. We don't just report; we tell tales of stardom and stories untold. Whether it's the rise of a new sensation or the seasoned journey of an industry veteran, the TOI Entertainment Desk is your front-row seat to the fascinating narratives that shape the entertainment landscape. Beyond the breaking news, we present a celebration of culture. We explore the intersections of entertainment with society, politics, and everyday life. Read More Avneet Kaur radiates elegance in a vibrant yellow saree Trending: How to make Caramel Popcorn 10 health benefits of eating black pepper regularly Avika Gor’s saree style shines as a true vision of elegance and brilliance Stylish closet of heartthrob Karan Aujla’s beautiful wife Palak Aujla Elegant looks of Esha Kansara Baby names inspired by rare and unique names of Lord Shiva 10 warning signs you are experiencing work burnout 10 quotes from famous authors that motivate and inspireNEW YORK and AMSTERDAM , Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices ("S&P DJI"), the world's leading index provider, today announced the results of the annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) rebalancing and reconstitution. The DJSI are float-adjusted market capitalization weighted indices that measure the performance of companies selected using environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Error! There was an error processing your request. Top trending stories from the past week. News, Sports, and more throughout the week. The week's obituaries, delivered to your inbox.
Blakley's 28 lead Le Moyne over SUNY Delhi 106-51
Sam Altman-led OpenAI targets 1 billion users by 2025 on the back of Apple partnershipWe know teens love their Strawberry Acai Refreshers, their Caramel Frappuccinos, and their cake pops from Starbucks. But the coffee chain is so deeply integrated into the lives of teens that they don’t just use it to fuel their mornings and as a meetup spot: They also use it as currency. That’s one of the findings of a new report from Cafeteria, an app that pays teens for their brand insights. Teens don’t just pay each other back with cash, Cash App, or Venmo. Instead of actually handing over dollars, they’re swapping lattes, cold brews, and chais from Starbucks when they owe each other money, with 30.7% of teens saying they offer to pay “next time.” The coffee giant was the only brand that teens mentioned using to settle up. Starbucks is the number-one coffee spot for teens and the number-two restaurant (behind Chick-fil-A). Given how frequently teens are hitting up the coffee chain, it makes a lot of sense that they would rely on it to even out finances. Of course, teens still pay each other back in other ways: 23.9% use Venmo to send a friend money they borrowed and some still rely on the old-fashioned method, with 22.8% handing over cash. But according to the Cafeteria report, Starbucks orders are “the ultimate IOU.” The brand is so popular with teens that the demographic often knows their best friend’s Starbucks order, too. In a series of questions it called the “real friend test,” Cafeteria asked teens what their best friend’s order was. A whopping 89% knew their best friend’s exact drink, down to the size, the milk, and the drizzles. | Teens have food favorites at the chain, too. According to 13.5% of the teens in the survey, Starbucks is a favorite not just for coffee or paybacks, but for a lunchtime staple: grilled cheese. The teens called the selection their favorite menu item at the chain. “It’s literally the best thing on the menu,” one 17-year-old female said in the report. “And then I’ll get it with, like, a cake pop, obviously.” Snagging limited-time offerings is a driving factor behind teens’ spending, which Starbucks has leaned into with holiday drinks and the new Wicked-themed drinks : Glinda’s Pink Potion and Elphaba’s Cold Brew. (Such offerings also make for solid social media posts, which are a huge incentive for the demographic.) But it’s not the only brand with rotating menus that create a sense of urgency for teens. According to the report, Crumbl, the maker of giant cookies whose flavors rotate weekly, is hot right now (even if most of the cookies are, er, cold). It was the only food brand teens mentioned when asked what their “must-try” brands were. Crumbl has seen major success online as teens try out and rank their favorite cookies. Many even try them just to hate on new flavors, in scathing reviews on sites such as Reddit . Cafeteria’s report demonstrates teens’ obsession with ultra-popular brands, such as Starbucks and Crumbl. But it also highlights up-and-coming brands in what it calls “pre-trends.” In the retail industry, it names a few of those “soon-to-pop” brands, including Puma, Hey Dude, GymShark, and Princess Polly. When it comes to beauty, move over Sephora: Merit, Tarte, and Ouai are among the next big makeup brands to take over with teens. The Cafeteria app asks teens to weigh in on their favorite brands and, in exchange, it pays them for their insights. It describes itself as a “direct relationship between brands and teens, driving a unique and authentic creative economy.” It says it has onboarded startups as well as top brands, all of which want to hear from teens in their own voice, in order to better their brands for a teen audience. The extended deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is TODAY, Friday, December 13, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.Papers: Juventus line up Man Utd's Zirkzee in January loan moveVladimir Putin's secret lover shows off at international gymnastics event as world on brink of WW3
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has launched the trailer for 'Sangeet Manapman,' a Marathi film inspired by a beloved play. Comparing the state's political situation to the film's themes of honour and dishonour, Fadnavis shared insights at the event. The BJP-led Mahayuti alliance saw significant success in the recent elections, leading to Fadnavis' appointment as Chief Minister. The ministry, expanded shortly after his oath ceremony, reflects this political triumph. Highlighting the film's cultural impact, Fadnavis praised its effort to present classical Marathi art to a new generation. He emphasized the film's role in promoting Marathi culture, while assuring continued governmental support for the arts. (With inputs from agencies.)Micheál Martin sees ‘clear path’ back to Government – and says polls ‘give Fianna Fáil heart attacks all the time’
NEW YORK and AMSTERDAM , Dec. 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Dow Jones Indices ("S&P DJI"), the world's leading index provider, today announced the results of the annual Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) rebalancing and reconstitution. The DJSI are float-adjusted market capitalization weighted indices that measure the performance of companies selected using environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria. The DJSI, including the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DJSI World), were launched in 1999 as the pioneering series of global sustainability benchmarks available in the market. The index family is comprised of global, regional and country benchmarks. As a result of this year's review, the following top three largest companies based on free-float market capitalization have been added to and deleted from the DJSI World. All changes are effective on Monday, December 23, 2024 . Additions: Airbus SE, Schlumberger Ltd, BAE Systems Plc Deletions: Alphabet Inc 1 , UnitedHealth Group Inc, ASML Holding NV 2 The full results and list of DJSI constituents will be available as of Monday, December 23 2024 , at https://www.spglobal.com/esg/csa/djsi-annual-review S&P Dow Jones Indices will be renaming a number of its sustainability and ESG-related indices (see Index Announcement ). As part of this update, the family of Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) will be renamed Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices. The changes will become effective on Monday, February 10, 2025 . The S&P Global CSA Scores will continue to be a key factor in selecting constituents for the DJSI when they are renamed Dow Jones Best-in-Class Indices in February 2025 . For more information about the DJSI methodology, please visit: www.spglobal.com/spdji . ABOUT S&P DOW JONES INDICES S&P Dow Jones Indices is the largest global resource for essential index-based concepts, data and research, and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500® and the Dow Jones Industrial Average®. More assets are invested in products based on our indices than products based on indices from any other provider in the world. Since Charles Dow invented the first index in 1884, S&P DJI has been innovating and developing indices across the spectrum of asset classes helping to define the way investors measure and trade the markets. S&P Dow Jones Indices is a division of S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI), which provides essential intelligence for individuals, companies, and governments to make decisions with confidence. For more information, visit: www.spglobal.com/spdji . 1 Still member of DJSI World Enlarged and DJSI North America 2 Still member of DJSI World Enlarged S&P DJI MEDIA CONTACTS: spdji.comms@spglobal.com View original content: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sp-dow-jones-indices-announces-dow-jones-sustainability-indices-2024-review-results-302331745.html SOURCE S&P Dow Jones Indices Stay Informed: Subscribe to Our Newsletter TodayRickey Henderson’s numbers are astounding. The Hall of Fame outfielder stole more bases than anyone in major-league history. He also scored the most runs and hit the most leadoff home runs while collecting more than 3,000 hits on the way to enshrinement in Cooperstown, N.Y. Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa will remember Henderson for more than the stats. “Rickey Henderson, as great a player, just as great of a teammate,” La Russa said during a conference call with Chicago reporters Sunday afternoon. “He was always in the midst of everything happening in the clubhouse, dugout and on the plane. “Great sense of humor. Personally, my interchanges with him was just honored to have him on the team.” Henderson died Friday at age 65 . He and La Russa were together for parts of seven seasons (1989-93 and 1994-95) with the Oakland Athletics. It was a very successful period. The A’s won the 1989 World Series, with Henderson earning MVP honors in the American League Championship Series. Henderson was named AL MVP in 1990 as the A’s captured their third consecutive pennant. “The thing about Rickey was the old saying, ‘When your best player or one of your best players sets the best example on and off the field, it’s a huge plus for your team,'” La Russa said. “He made other teammates want to be part of a team that was like glue. “Rickey was the ideal great player, great teammate and made everybody better.” Blue Jays first baseman John Olerud looks for the ball over the A’s Rickey Henderson after a wild pickoff throw in the American League Championship Series on Oct. 13, 1992, at Oakland Coliseum. Henderson made it to third base on the error. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) La Russa recalled having to prepare to face Henderson while he was managing the Chicago White Sox from 1979-86. And also what it was like getting to write Henderson’s name at the top of his lineup with the A’s. “One of the things, one of the realities of Rickey’s career — and we knew it (going) against him — was that he was so dangerous that teams focused on stopping him,” La Russa said. “And look at the career he had. He was a marked man whether he was hitting or baserunning. People went through all the extremes to stop him and you couldn’t stop him. “I was just in awe. Our teammates were in awe of how hard he played. There were a lot of attempts to intimidate him, which never made us happy. You couldn’t scare him and you couldn’t stop him.” Henderson was born in Chicago and grew up in Oakland, where he later would become a superstar. His 1,406 stolen bases, 2,295 runs and 81 leadoff homers are the most in MLB history. He also holds the modern-era record for stolen bases in a season, swiping 130 in 1982. He finished his 25-year career with a .279/.401/.419 slash line, 3,055 hits, 510 doubles, 66 triples, 297 home runs and 1,115 RBIs while playing for nine teams, including four stints with the A’s. He won a second World Series ring with the 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. “I don’t think anybody would disagree, in our generation, he was the most dangerous player on the other side in a tie game or you are one run ahead,” La Russa said. “The all-timers, he’s on the team.” La Russa also praised the 10-time All-Star’s baseball IQ. A’s legends Dave Stewart and Rickey Henderson share a moment in the dugout before the team’s last game at the Oakland Coliseum on Sept. 26, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group) “As smart as any position player I’ve ever been around,” La Russa said. “(He had) that stance with the small strike zone, but he was ready to strike if you threw a strike. All the leadoff homers. He was smart. And he learned to be a great base stealer, learned to be a better hitter. “He told me a couple years ago, there was one statistic in his career that he never expected — he didn’t say he ‘appreciates more than the others’ because he had to work hard to hit those home runs and steal all those bases — but it was that he never had a thought that he could be a 3,000-hit guy. “He explained because he drew so many walks, (he) never thought he’d have enough at-bats. When you think about all the at-bats that didn’t count, the fact that he got 3,000 hits — remarkable, makes him even greater. One of a kind. As good as any player who has ever played the game.” La Russa and Henderson remained in contact through the years. La Russa estimated he saw Henderson about “three or four times” in the last three months. “If you looked at him like we looked at him, we commented, ‘Look how great he looks,'” La Russa said. “He could still play. Very, very difficult to accept. “Great person, great player, great teammate. ... Great friend.”
Blake Lively's Brother-in-Law Slams 'Microscope' on Her 'Few Bad Moments,' Says the 'Public Got Played' by Justin BaldoniTowson University again denied new degree due to similarity to one at Morgan State
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers, meet your latest lobbyists: online influencers from TikTok. The platform is once again bringing influencers to Washington, this time to lobby members of Congress to reject a fast-moving bill that would force TikTok's Beijing-based parent company to sell or be banned in the United States. On Tuesday, some influencers began a two-day advocacy event in support of TikTok, which arranged their trip ahead of a House floor vote on the legislation on Wednesday. But unlike a similar lobbying event the company put together last March when talks of a TikTok ban reached a fever pitch, this year’s effort appeared more rushed as the company scrambles to counter the legislation, which advanced rapidly on Capitol Hill. Summer Lucille, a TikTok content creator with 1.4 million followers who is visiting Washington this week, said if TikTok is banned, she “don’t know what it will do” to her business, a plus-sized boutique in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It will be devastating,” Lucille said in an interview arranged by the platform. In an unusual showing of bipartisanship, a House panel unanimously approved the measure last week. President Joe Biden has said he will sign the legislation if lawmakers pass it. But it’s unclear what will happen in the Senate, where several bills aimed at banning TikTok have stalled. The legislation faces other roadblocks. Former president and current presidential candidate Donald Trump, who holds sway over both House and Senate Republicans, has voiced opposition to the bill, saying it would empower Meta-owned Facebook, which he continues to lambast over his 2020 election loss. The bill also faces pushback from some progressive lawmakers in the House as well as civil liberties groups who argue it infringes on the First Amendment. TikTok could be banned if ByteDance, the parent company, doesn’t sell its stakes in the platform and other applications it owns within six months of the bill’s enactment. The fight over the platform takes place as U.S.-China relations have shifted to that of strategic rivalry, especially in areas such as advanced technologies and data security, seen as essential to each country’s economic prowess and national security. The shift, which started during the Trump years and has continued under Biden, has placed restrictions on export of advanced technologies and outflow of U.S. monies to China, as well as access to the U.S. market by certain Chinese businesses. The Biden administration also has cited human rights concerns in blacklisting a number of Chinese companies accused of assisting the state surveillance campaign against ethnic minorities. TikTok isn’t short on lobbyists. Its Beijing-based parent company ByteDance has a strong lobbying apparatus in Washington that includes dozens of lobbyists from well-known consulting and legal firms as well as influential insiders, such as former members of Congress and ex-aides to powerful lawmakers, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew will also be in Washington this week and plans to meet with lawmakers, according to a company spokesperson who said Chew’s visit was previously scheduled. But influencers, who have big followings on social media and can share personal stories of how the platform boosted their businesses — or simply gave them a voice — are still perhaps one of the most powerful tools the company has in its arsenal. A TikTok spokesperson said dozens of influencers will attend the two-day event, including some who came last year. The spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions about how many new people would be attending this year’s lobbying blitz. The company is briefing them ahead of meetings with their representatives and media interviews. Lucille, who runs the boutique in North Carolina, says has seen a substantial surge in revenue because of her TikTok page. The 34-year-old began making TikTok content focusing on plus-sized fashion in March 2022, more than a decade after she started her business. She quickly amassed thousands of followers after posting a nine-second video about her boutique. Because of her popularity on the platform, her business has more online exposure and customers, some of whom have visited from as far as Europe. She says she also routinely hears from followers who are finding support through her content about fashion and confidence. JT Laybourne, an influencer who also came to Washington, said he joined TikTok in early 2019 after getting some negative comments on videos he posted on Instagram while singing in the car with his children. Laybourne, who lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, said he was attracted to the short-form video platform because it was easy to create videos that contained music. Like Lucille, he quickly gained traction on the app. He says he also received more support from TikTok users, who reacted positively to content he produced on love and positivity. Laybourne says the community he built on the platform rallied around his family when he had to undergo heart surgery in 2020. Following the surgery, he said he used the platform to help raise $1 million for the American Heart Association in less than two years. His family now run an apparel company that gets most of its traffic from TikTok. “I will fight tooth-and-nail for this app,” he said. But whether the opposition the company is mounting through lobbyists or influencers will be enough to derail the bill is yet to be seen. On Tuesday, House lawmakers received a briefing on national security concerns regarding TikTok from the FBI, Justice Department and intelligence officials. AP Journalist Didi Tang contributed to this report. This story was originally published on March 12, 2024. It was updated on December 23, 2024 to clarify a quote by TikTok content creator Summer Lucille.
Miriam Gluyas has been up since 4am in the Melbourne morning to make it here for our lunch, which will not trouble this masthead’s budget. She is warm and bright in a tomato-red cardigan, fitting apparel for the Commissioner of the Salvation Army. Not for us, a flash restaurant in Sydney’s down-town. Gluyas, who is “65 but feels 35”, has invited me to dine as the organisation’s clients do – modestly and communally. We are at William Booth House, a Salvos-run rehabilitation facility in Surry Hills. It is poised on a hip patch of Sydney real estate, amid minimalist clothing boutiques and cafes where the baristas are extremely serious about coffee. It would be worth a fortune, but like nearby Foster House, a facility for the homeless, it is badly in need of refurbishment. “We want to give people who use our services some dignity,” Gluyas tells me. “For that we need to upgrade. So we are going to donors and the government to seek support.” The lunchroom is a cheerful, stainless-steel kitchen, cafeteria-style affair, staffed by residents and scattered with rehab attendees, one of whom sits next to Miriam and chats easily to her. We serve ourselves. On the menu is a Greek-style grilled chicken wrap with yoghurt sauce and salad. We drink tap water from mugs. It’s simple and delicious. Gluyas is the Salvos’ Big Cheese – the head of an organisation with 8000 employees, about $735 million in property assets and a net income of $22.9 million, according to the December 2023 Annual Report. But she does not have Big Cheese-energy. She also does not get paid Big Cheese-bucks – her pay packet is about $500 a week. Sure, she gets the use of a house and a vehicle thrown in, but I cannot think of any other boss who draws a salary of $26,000 a year. It’s radically counter-cultural. “I don’t like a command-and-control leadership,” Gluyas says. “I like a leadership that says, ‘Let’s come together, let’s wrestle and get to the best outcome’.” A structural flaw of the lunch interview is the fact that the interviewee has to do almost all the talking, and doesn’t get a chance to eat. But that’s not my problem. I begin with asking Miriam about her own background, which she says was as obliviously happy as they come – so much so, that she says she “probably didn’t even realise that people went through difficult stuff”. “I would call myself very blessed to have grown up in a family where you could be anything, do anything.” She was raised in Ballarat, with loving parents and grandparents, the eldest of three siblings, in a strongly Salvation-Army household, going back generations to her Scottish forebears. She barracked for the Geelong Cats and attended Clarendon Presbyterian Ladies College. “It didn’t work,” she quips, meaning the “Ladies” part. Her mother May was a ten-pound Scottish migrant who ran her own small businesses, including a babywear shop and a ladies’ apparel store. Her father, Les, was a builder. “I think my parents were ahead of their time, but I didn’t realise it,” Gluyas says. “They both worked. They always said to me, ‘Be whatever you want. Do whatever you want’.” The family was close-knit but full of robust kitchen table debate, especially about politics. Her father Les was always Gluyas’ chief sparring partner. Now aged 88, he still is. I ask what the fault lines of their discussions are. “He would come from the very white ... there’s only one side of politics for him,” Gluyas says carefully. “So we would debate about that, especially when I was working at Auburn with asylum seekers and refugees. We would probably debate about most things.” Gluyas wanted to be a professional golfer or a sports teacher but ended up training as a Salvation Army officer, graduating aged 24 in 1983. She has worked “all over NSW and Queensland”, but her career highlights were “planting” (starting up) a new church in Newcastle in the mid-1990s, running a church in Auburn in Sydney’s western suburbs in the 2000s, and a three-year mission in Papua New Guinea in the early 2010s. The Auburn church attracted congregants from 26 different nations, many of them refugees and asylum seekers. There was also a cohort of methadone users. Gluyas learnt that years of drug abuse can ruin teeth, which in turn can result in self-esteem issues and social rejection. So the Salvos offered dental care. “Beautifully, one of the dentists out there said, ‘Everything would change if they could get their teeth back’,” Gluyas recounts. “So he would redo their teeth and to see them come back and say ‘Finally, I am game enough to smile and get a job!’” One of Gluyas’ most memorable clients at the Auburn centre was a young girl from Sierra Leone. “She had been in two refugee camps where she was not sure if she would survive,” Miriam says. “When she arrived in Australia, she was placed in Year 10, but she was years behind in her schooling.” With support and tuition from the Salvation Army, she finished the HSC, went on to university and is now a registered nurse. “I remember sitting at a table with someone once and people were saying, ‘Those people should have to learn English before they come here’, and I remember reacting and saying, ‘How dare you say that? You don’t know their stories’,” Gluyas says. “But then I had to stop and think, ‘I didn’t know their stories before either’. If you don’t know, you don’t know.” Gluyas has managed a few nibbles of her lunch before I hit her with a big question – I ask her what the voice of God sounds like to her. She answers by telling me about her mother. When Gluyas was working in Papua New Guinea, her mother, who suffered from dementia towards the end of her life, used to phone and beg her daughter to come home. Gluyas was in knots about what to do, until one night as she was jogging around the Salvos’ compound, God spoke to her. “He said, ‘I never want you to worry about a title or a position any more. Go home and look after your mum’.” Gluyas did what she was told, and got another seven years with her mother, but when her mum died in 2021 during lockdown, it was “incredibly sad” and Gluyas had “a little argument with God”. “I said, ‘You could have waited because I would really have liked to be there with my dad at her funeral’,” she says. “But then I thought, ‘It is what it is, and many other people have been through the same thing’.” Gluyas is too nice, too clever and too unassuming to bite on any questions about politics. But she says the impact of the cost of living crisis is “huge”, and is forcing people to make impossible choices between paying power bills and buying food. “It’s just becoming overwhelming, like a blanket over people, they think, ‘How will I do this?’” Last week, the Salvation Army put out a press release saying it expected this Christmas to be the hardest in its 140-year history in terms of the volume and widespread nature of need across the country. Gluyas says the Salvos are seeing “people who have never come before and are actually embarrassed to come”. Having seen the effects of gambling addiction, she supports cashless gambling cards and banning gambling advertisements. “It’s all right to say at the end of the Footy Tab ad, ‘You are likely to lose’ or whatever, but I think, ‘Why bother?’” While some faith groups want to retain exemptions to anti-discrimination laws, the Salvation Army has a formal “Commitment to Inclusion” which encompasses “people of all cultures, languages, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions and intersex status”. “I think there is a massive degree of loneliness,” Gluyas says of the Salvos’ mission. “A lot of people come into our centres because they’re lonely, and they’re after real community.” By now I have polished off my chicken wrap and Gluyas has barely touched hers, and I do start to feel bad about it. Gluyas is so thoroughly equable and kind that it is starting to rub off on me. I tell her I worry she will be hungry later. “That’s fine!” she says. “It’s totally fine.” She takes a few more bites before we make her work again, this time to pose for the photographer. Ghoulishly desperate to discover Gluyas’ dark side, I ask her if she ever feels despondent. “Look, I am a pretty positive, upbeat person,” she says. She pauses for a moment to reflect, and then says that the only thing she gets despondent about is “attitudes”. Characteristically, she refrains from mentioning the people whose attitudes sadden her. “You have to hear the story behind the person, and then you’ll start to think differently,” she says. “Why is someone lying in the doorway? What is their story? How did they end up getting there? You will usually find a pretty powerful story there.”Singer-songwriter Khalid comes out as gay on social media after being outed
Woman power in films highlighted at LU event