Abbotsford gourmet hotdog vendor Skully White has announced he is no longer seeking the nomination for the federal Conservative Party in Abbotsford-South Langley. White, the owner of Lullys Food Experience, announced the decision in a social media post on Thursday (Dec. 5), saying he is stepping back to devote more time to his family. White married his wife Kelly, a single mom, in September 2023. “I love this community and always will, but anyone who knows me knows that family comes first,” White wrote in the post. “Our youngest child, who has autism and IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities), is having a difficult time transitioning through adolescence into manhood. “My wife is a rock star, having dealt with this by herself for 18 years, and my heart is telling me I need to be close to home to be her support and to help her navigate this next chapter.” White, 55, announced in May of this year that he was seeking the nomination, joining four others vying for a chance to run in the 2025 federal election. The Abbotsford-South Langley riding will replace the Abbotsford riding, which is currently held by Conservative MP Ed Fast, who in March announced he will retire from federal politics after 18 years. Still seeking the nomination are former longtime Abbotsford West MLA Mike de Jong; Fast’s executive assistant, Mike Murray; Steve Schafer, the vice-president of the Langley-Aldergrove Constituency Association; and Shanjeelin Dwivedi, who has served as a director of parliamentary affairs with two MPs as well as a senior adviser and campaign volunteer. A date for the nomination vote has not been announced. White has been a relentless advocate for finding living donors for people in need of transplants after he experienced the life-changing difference it makes in someone’s life. In late 2020, White donated one of his kidneys to customer Tim Hiscock. He stated in his social media post that he will continue with this endeavour. White said that recently seven new people in need of a new kidney signed up, bringing the total in the community to almost 30. “After much soul searching, I recognize how important helping save lives through the kidney campaign means to me and I want to devote my time to helping this cause,” he said. White said he might re-enter the political ring in the future, “as the notion of helping our community on a larger scale” calls to him.In this technical article we’re going to take a quick look at the weekly Elliott Wave charts of Tesla (TSLA) , published in members area of the website. As many of our members are aware, the stock has given us good buying opportunities recently. The stock is showing impulsive bullish sequences in the cycle from the 138.63 low and we were calling for a further rally. In the following sections, we’ll delve into the Elliott Wave pattern and explain the forecast. TESLA H1 Update 11.04.2024 The stock has given us correction against the 212.12 low. The pullback has already reached the extreme zone at 245.17-233.93 and we believe pull back could be done. At this stage, we advise against selling the stock and favor the long side from the marked extreme zone. As the main trend is bullish, we believe TSLA could either see a rally toward new highs. TESLA H1 Update 11.12.2024 The stock responded exactly as expected. It found buyers at the Blue Box Area, making rally toward new highs. TESLA stock should ideally keep finding buyers in 3,7,11 swings against the 238.7 pivot. Keep in mind market is dynamic and presented view could have changed in the mean time.
The ongoing fight between some faculty at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and the administration at the premier engineering school, mainly the director Virendra Kumar Tewari, may end up before the courts, with the faculty threatening to approach the Calcutta High Court. Some of the professors have also threatened to launch a hunger strike. “We have already sent a letter to the chairman of the board of governors for his intervention. Sit-in demonstration has started since Wednesday. If our demands our not met we would go for a hunger strike. We are also planning to move court early next week,” said one of the professors who received a show-cause notice, asking not to be identified. While the immediate provocation for both the hunger-strike and the plan to move the high court, is a show-cause notice issued by the institution’s registrar last week to 86 faculty members, the controversy has been brewing since September. That was when the Indian Institute of Technology Teachers’ Association (IITTA) sent a letter to the Union human resource development minister accusing the institute’s director of nepotism, arbitrary recruitment of faculty, failure to start a multi super-speciality hospital, unlawful recovery of excess payment from faculties and vitiating the harmony between the IIT campus and the neighbouring community. Tewari, the director of the institute took charge in December 2019 for a period of five years. His tenure ends in January 2025. “The letter sent to the Union minister on September 20 stated that several letters sent to the director, board of governors and the chairman over the issues in the past went unanswered. The ministry was requested to appoint a new director of high academic repute and experienced in practising inclusive governance,” said a second professor and a member of the IITTA, who too didn’t wish to be named. In response, the IIT administration issued show-cause notices to the office bearers of the IITTA, including the body’s president, general secretary, vice president and treasurer on November 12. A separate show-cause notice was issued to Amal Kumar Das, a professor and general secretary of IITTA. “The institute is deeply concerned by the contents of your letter and accordingly you are required to provide a detailed written explanation with evidence,” the letter stated, giving the respondents a week’s time to provide satisfactory explanation. On November 28, 86 faculty members, under the umbrella of IITTA petitioned the institute, threatening to go on a hunger strike if the show cause notices to the four IITTA office-bearers were not rolled recalled. But the institute doubled down and issued show cause notices to these 86 too. “We, the faculty members of IIT Kharagpur demand that the two show cause notices, against the office bearers and Das, be withdrawn immediately and disciplinary proceedings are also stopped,” the petition said. In response, on November 29, the administration issued show-cause notices to all the 86 faculty members. The show-cause letter cited the Conduct Rules of the Institute, statute 15 (17) Schedule B, point 16 (b) which states: “No employee shall be signatory to any joint representation addressed to the authorities for redress of any grievances or of any further matter.” The director also replaced three heads of departments – Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics and Bioscience and Biotechnology, earlier this week. They had all signed the petition. HT got in touch with the IIT Kharagpur director’s office and sent an email seeking his response on the developments. There was no response till the time of going to print. On Wednesday, at least 100 professors staged a sit-in before the institution’s administrative building, holding placards and wearing black badges.
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NEW YORK , Dec. 6, 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: Liberty Broadband Corporation (NASDAQ: LBRDA)'s sale to Charter Communications, Inc. for 0.236 of a share of Charter common stock per share of Liberty Broadband common stock. If you are a Liberty shareholder, click here to learn more about your legal rights and options . CrossFirst Bankshares, Inc. (NASDAQ: CFB)'s sale to First Busey Corporation for 0.6675 shares of Busey common stock for each share of CrossFirst common stock. Upon completion of the proposed transaction, CrossFirst's shareholders will own approximately 36.5% of the combined company. If you are a CrossFirst shareholder, click here to learn more about your legal rights and options . Nabors Industries Ltd. (NYSE: NBR)'s merger with Parker Wellbore. Per the terms of the proposed transaction, Nabors would acquire all of Parker's issued and outstanding common shares in exchange for 4.8 million shares of Nabors common stock, subject to a share price collar. If you are a Nabors 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. (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-lbrda-cfb-nbr-on-behalf-of-shareholders-302325145.html SOURCE Halper Sadeh LLPTrudeau told Trump Americans would also suffer if tariffs are imposed, a Canadian minister says
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said he will lift his martial law decree, giving in to the parliament’s opposition, just hours after his dramatic move imposing it Tuesday. Yoon said in a televised address early Wednesday that he will “accept the National Assembly’s demand and lift the martial law through a cabinet meeting,” which he said he had called but its members hadn’t yet arrived. He will immediately lift the martial law when they convene, he said. Yoon, 63, stunned the nation, lawmakers and investors earlier by declaring martial law in a high-stakes move he claimed would prevent the opposition from trying to paralyze his administration amid a political rift that is set to deepen markedly. The South Korean leader’s political future will be put to test after his daring move, which caught even his fellow party members and foreign allies like the U.S. by surprise. “I request the National Assembly to immediately stop the reckless acts of paralyzing the functions of the state through repeated impeachments, legislative manipulation, and budget manipulation,” Yoon said in his earlier televised address. After Yoon announced he would lift the decree, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said its troops that had been mobilized for the martial law declaration have returned to their original posts as of 4:22 a.m., Yonhap reported. No unusual activities have been spotted from North Korea, it added. The move was viewed by analysts as a risky political play that was likely to backfire rather than an attempt to return to military-led regimes of the past. With his own government and party kept in the dark alongside the U.S. and other friendly nations, Yoon created a chaotic moment that left him isolated and even further from controlling the political agenda going forward. Early Wednesday morning, 190 lawmakers in the 300-seat parliament unanimously voted to demand the lifting of martial law. The president had said his move was intended to protect freedom and constitutional order, that it wouldn’t have an impact on South Korea’s foreign policy, and that it would help eradicate the influence of North Korean supporters. A proclamation released after the address banned all political activities and strikes and said media would be subject to control of the Martial Law Command. Korean assets were battered during New York trading. The won suffered its sharpest drop since the global financial crisis to hit 1444.65 its lowest in over two years, before paring losses. Samsung Electronics’ London-listed shares fell as much as 7.2% then regained some ground. The finance minister and central bank chief met and promised to provide unlimited liquidity to markets if needed. The Bank of Korea will meet early Wednesday, just a week after a surprise rate cut partly triggered by heightened uncertainty generated by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory. Adding to the sense of chaos, the nation’s largest union federation called a general strike in defiance of Yoon’s order. The shock announcement to impose martial law for the first time since the democratization of South Korea in 1987 caught even Yoon’s own party off guard. Han Dong-hoon, leader of Yoon’s People Power Party, condemned the move and vowed to stop it, in a sign of the president’s increasing isolation and his lack of consultation. The move also surprised the White House, prompting Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell to say that the Biden administration was watching the developments with “grave concern.” Yoon’s abrupt decision came after months of wrangling and deadlock in parliament between the president’s minority government and the main opposition Democratic Party, but with little expectation that the president would take such a drastic step. The opposition has been trying to force its budget proposal through parliament and has submitted an impeachment motion against the chief prosecutor after months of also trying to get Yoon’s wife prosecuted. Adding to the fractious political rift, the DP’s leader has faced multiple court cases and was convicted last month of election-law violations, barring him from running for president if it is finalized. Amid the political standoff, Yoon had vetoed a string of bills passed by parliament and at times angering his own party. His latest act ramped up tensions considerably domestically, while also creating high uncertainty abroad for the outlook of one of the world’s key suppliers of semiconductors and a stalwart U.S. ally in an increasingly complex security environment in Asia. Even though the martial law order lasted less than a day, the political instability it will generate is set to last two or three years, according to Lee Won-Jae, a sociology professor at at Kaist Graduate School of Culture Technology in Daejeon. “Martial law has lost its effect, so from this moment on, all state institutions exercising physical force, including the military and police of the Republic of Korea, are obligated not to follow unlawful or unfair instructions,” Han, the leader of Yoon’s party, said in a Facebook post. Yoon’s moves came at a time of high uncertainty for the nation as its trade-dependent economy faces potential tariffs from Trump’s incoming U.S. administration. Bloomberg Economics estimates that full imposition of tariffs on China, South Korea and other U.S. trading partners could reduce Seoul’s exports to the U.S. by as much as 55%. Meanwhile, North Korea continues to present a security concern as it deepens its ties with Russia, having sent thousands of troops there to help in Moscow’s war against Ukraine. Russia’s defense minister visited Pyongyang last week in the latest sign of talks between the two countries. Russia may help provide North Korea key technology for its weapons programs including its intercontinental ballistic missiles. “We shouldn’t be fooled — this has nothing at all to do with North Korea and all to do with domestic politics,” said Defense Priorities Fellow Daniel DePetris. China suggested its citizens residing in South Korea keep calm and try to avoid going outdoors for anything non-essential, the country’s embassy said in a post on social media Tuesday night. The embassy also asked Chinese citizens to comply with official orders from the Korean government and “use caution” over sharing political opinions. “The domestic uncertainty adds to the external pressures in recent weeks as the market is starting to price in the rise of higher U.S. tariffs under the new Trump administration,” said Aroop Chatterjee, a strategist at Wells Fargo. “Korea is an open economy sensitive to shifts in global export demand and spillovers from a weaker China.” While it remains to be seen if the short-lived declaration of martial law will have a lasting impact on markets and the economy, Yoon’s high-stakes move is certain to knock confidence in his leadership and his reliability as a bullwark of democracy in a nation with many authoritarian neighbors. “U.S. officials look to South Korea now as a beacon of democracy so for a president to pull a fast one like this is certainly shocking and unprecedented,” said DePetris. Bank of Korea’s monetary board, which unexpectedly cut the key rate last week, will also hold an extraordinary meeting Wednesday morning to discuss steps to shield the economy and markets. “From a near-term policy standpoint, apart from the market disruptions, uncertainty could also arise in the event of cabinet changes,” Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts Goohoon Kwon and Kamakshya Trivedi wrote in a note Tuesday. (With assistance from Maria Elena Vizcaino.) ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.On the south side of Austin, Texas, engineers at semiconductor maker Advanced Micro Devices designed an artificial intelligence chip called MI300 that was released a year ago and is expected to generate more than $5 billion in sales in its first year of release. Not far away in a north Austin high-rise, designers at Amazon developed a new and faster version of an AI chip called Trainium . They then tested the chip in creations including palm-size circuit boards and complex computers the size of two refrigerators. Those two efforts in the capital of Texas reflect a shift in the rapidly evolving market of AI chips, which are perhaps the hottest and most coveted technology of the moment. The industry has long been dominated by Nvidia , which has leveraged its AI chips to become a $3 trillion behemoth. For years, others tried to match the company's chips, which provide enormous computing power for AI tasks, but made little progress. Now the chips that Advanced Micro Devices, known as AMD, and Amazon have created -- as well as customer reactions to their technology -- are adding to signs that credible alternatives to Nvidia are finally emerging. For some crucial AI tasks, Nvidia's rivals are proving they can deliver much faster speed, and at much lower prices , said Daniel Newman, an analyst at Futurum Group. "That's what everybody has known is possible, and now we're starting to see it materialize," he said. Artificial Intelligence(AI) Generative AI for Dynamic Java Web Applications with ChatGPT By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) ChatGPT Mastery from Zero to Hero: The Complete AI Course By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Entrepreneurship From Idea to Product: A Startup Development Guide By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Master in Python Language Quickly Using the ChatGPT Open AI By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Zero to Hero in Microsoft Excel: Complete Excel guide 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Finance AI and Generative AI for Finance By - Hariom Tatsat, Vice President- Quantitative Analytics at Barclays View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI-Powered Python Mastery with Tabnine: Boost Your Coding Skills By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital Marketing Masterclass by Neil Patel By - Neil Patel, Co-Founder and Author at Neil Patel Digital Digital Marketing Guru View Program Entrepreneurship Startup Fundraising: Essential Tactics for Securing Capital By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Web Development Advanced Java Mastery: Object-Oriented Programming Techniques By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Data Science SQL Server Bootcamp 2024: Transform from Beginner to Pro By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Web Development Mastering Full Stack Development: From Frontend to Backend Excellence By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) AI and Analytics based Business Strategy By - Tanusree De, Managing Director- Accenture Technology Lead, Trustworthy AI Center of Excellence: ATCI View Program Web Development Intermediate C++ Skills: Master Pointers, Structures and File Stream By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Marketing Digital marketing - Wordpress Website Development By - Shraddha Somani, Digital Marketing Trainer, Consultant, Strategiest and Subject Matter expert View Program Finance Value and Valuation Masterclass By - CA Himanshu Jain, Ex McKinsey, Moody's, and PwC, Co - founder, The WallStreet School View Program Finance Financial Literacy i.e Lets Crack the Billionaire Code By - CA Rahul Gupta, CA with 10+ years of experience and Accounting Educator View Program Entrepreneurship Crafting a Powerful Startup Value Proposition By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Entrepreneurship Building Your Winning Startup Team: Key Strategies for Success By - Dr. Anu Khanchandani, Startup Coach with more than 25 years of experience View Program Web Development A Comprehensive ASP.NET Core MVC 6 Project Guide for 2024 By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Data Science SQL for Data Science along with Data Analytics and Data Visualization By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program Office Productivity Excel Essentials to Expert: Your Complete Guide By - Study At Home, Quality Education Anytime, Anywhere View Program Artificial Intelligence(AI) Mastering C++ Fundamentals with Generative AI: A Hands-On By - Metla Sudha Sekhar, IT Specialist and Developer View Program The shift is being driven by an array of tech companies -- from large competitors such as Amazon and AMD to smaller startups -- that have started tailoring their chips for a particular phase of AI development that is becoming increasingly important. That process, called "inferencing," happens after companies use chips to train AI models. It allows them to carry out tasks such as serving up answers with AI chatbots. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories "The real commercial value comes with inference, and inference is starting to gain scale," said Cristiano Amon, chief executive of Qualcomm, a mobile chipmaker that plans to use Amazon's new chips for AI tasks. "We're starting to see the beginning of the change." Nvidia's rivals have also started taking a leaf out of the company's playbook in another way. They have begun emulating Nvidia's tactic of building complete computers -- and not just the chips -- so that customers can wring the maximum power and performance out of the chips for AI purposes. The increased competition was evident Tuesday, when Amazon announced the availability of computing services based on its new Trainium 2 AI chips and testimonials from potential users including Apple. The company also unveiled computers containing either 16 or 64 of the chips, with ultrafast networking connections that particularly accelerate inferencing performance. Amazon is even building a kind of giant AI factory for the startup Anthropic, which it has invested in, said Matt Garman, chief executive of Amazon Web Services. That computing "cluster" will have hundreds of thousands of the new Trainium chips and will be five times as powerful as any that Anthropic has ever used, said Tom Brown, a founder and the chief compute officer of the startup, which operates the Claude chatbot and is based in San Francisco. "This means customers will get more intelligence at a lower price and at faster speeds," Brown said. In total, spending on computers without Nvidia chips by data center operators, which provide the computing power needed for AI tasks, is expected to grow 49% this year to $126 billion, according to Omdia, a market research firm. Even so, the increased competition does not mean Nvidia is in danger of losing its lead. A spokesperson for the company pointed to comments made by Jensen Huang, Nvidia's chief executive, who has said his company has major advantages in AI software and inferencing capability. Huang has added that demand is torrid for the company's new Blackwell AI chips, which he says perform many more calculations per watt of energy used, despite an increase in the power they need to operate. "Our total cost of ownership is so good that even when the competitor's chips are free, it's not cheap enough," Huang said in a speech at Stanford University this year. The changing AI chip market has partly been propelled by well-funded startups such as SambaNova Systems, Groq and Cerebras Systems, which have lately claimed big speed advantages in inferencing, with lower prices and power consumption. Nvidia's current chips can cost as much as $15,000 each, and its Blackwell chips are expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars each. That has pushed some customers toward alternatives. Dan Stanzione, executive director of the Texas Advanced Computing Center, a research center, said the organization planned to buy a Blackwell-based supercomputer next year but would most likely also use chips from SambaNova for inferencing tasks because of their lower power consumption and pricing. "That stuff is just too expensive," he said of Nvidia's chips. AMD said it expected to target Nvidia's Blackwell chips with its own new AI chips arriving next year. In the company's Austin labs, where it exhaustively tests AI chips, executives said inferencing performance was a major selling point. One customer is Meta , the owner of Facebook and Instagram, which says that it has trained a new AI model, called Llama 3.1 405B, using Nvidia chips but that it uses AMD MI300s chips for providing answers to users. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Meta are also designing their own AI chips to speed up specific computing chores and achieve lower costs, while still building big clusters of machines powered by Nvidia's chips. This month, Google plans to begin selling services based on a sixth generation of internally developed chips, called Trillium, which is nearly five times as fast as its predecessor. Amazon, sometimes seen as a laggard in AI, seems particularly determined to catch up. The company allocated $75 billion this year for AI chips and other computing hardware, among other capital spending. At the company's Austin offices -- run by Annapurna Labs, a startup that it bought in 2015 -- engineers previously developed networking chips and general-purpose microprocessors for Amazon Web Services. Its early AI chips, including the first version of Trainium, did not gain much market traction. Amazon is far more optimistic about the new Trainium 2 chips, which are four times as fast as previous chips. On Tuesday, the company also announced plans for another chip, Trainium 3, which was set to be even more powerful. Eiso Kant, chief technology officer of Poolside, an AI startup in Paris, estimated that Trainium 2 would provide a 40% improvement in computing performance per dollar compared with Nvidia-based hardware. Amazon also plans to offer Trainium-based services in data centers across the world, Kant added, which helps with inferencing tasks. "The reality is, in my business, I don't care what silicon is underneath," he said. "What I care about is that I get the best price performance and that I can get it to the end user."
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Amid an unprecedented cyberattack on telecommunications companies such as AT&T and Verizon, U.S. officials have recommended that Americans use encrypted messaging apps to ensure their communications stay hidden from foreign hackers. The hacking campaign, nicknamed Salt Typhoon by Microsoft, is one of the largest intelligence compromises in U.S. history, and not yet fully remediated. Officials in a press call Tuesday refused to set a timetable for declaring the country’s telecommunications systems free of interlopers. Officials had previously told NBC News that China hacked AT&T, Verizon and Lumen Technologies to spy on customers. A spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the call Tuesday, two officials — a senior FBI official who requested to not be named and Jeff Greene, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — both recommended using encrypted messaging apps to Americans who wanted to minimize the chances of China intercepting their communications. “Our suggestion, what we have told folks internally, is not new here: encryption is your friend, whether it’s on text messaging or if you have the capacity to use encrypted voice communication. Even if the adversary is able to intercept the data, if it is encrypted, it will make it impossible,” Greene said. “People looking to further protect their mobile device communications would benefit from considering using a cellphone that automatically receives timely operating system updates, responsibly managed encryption and phishing resistant” multi-factor authentication for email, social media and collaboration tool accounts, the FBI official said. The scope of the telecom compromise is so significant that Greene said it was “impossible” for the agencies “to predict a time frame on when we’ll have full eviction.” The hackers generally accessed three types of information, the FBI official said. One type has been call records, or metadata, showing the time and numbers that phone calls were made. The hackers focused on records around the Washington, D.C., area, and the FBI does not plan to alert people whose phone metadata was accessed. The second type has been live phone calls of some specific targets. The FBI official declined to say how many alerts it had sent out to targets of that campaign, but the presidential campaigns of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as well as the office of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told NBC News in October that they had been informed by the FBI that they had been targeted. The third has been systems that telecommunications companies use in compliance with the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), which allows law enforcement and intelligence agencies with court orders to track individuals’ communications. CALEA systems can include classified court orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which processes some U.S. intelligence court orders. The FBI official declined to say if any classified material was accessed. Privacy advocates have long advocated for the use of end-to-end encrypted apps. Signal and WhatsApp both automatically implement end-to-end encryption in both calls and messages. Google Messages and iMessage also can encrypt both calls and texts end to end. The FBI and other federal law enforcement have a complicated relationship with encryption technology, historically advocating against full end-to-end encryption that does not allow law enforcement access to digital material even with a warrant. But the FBI has also supported forms of encryption that do allow for some law enforcement access in certain circumstances. Despite the fact that the hacking campaign was first publicly disclosed in the lead-up to the election, the United States does not believe it was an attempt to sway results, the FBI official said, and is instead a massive but traditional espionage operation by China to gather intelligence on American politics and government. “We see this as a cyber espionage campaign, not dissimilar to any other approaches. Certainly the way they went about it was very, very specific about the telcos and the ISPs, but it fits into the cyber espionage bucket,” the FBI official said. In a statement to NBC News, Ron Wyden, D-Ore, one of the Senate’s fiercest privacy advocates, criticized America’s reliance on CALEA as it leaves such sensitive information unencrypted. “Whether it’s AT&T, Verizon, or Microsoft and Google, when those companies are inevitably hacked, China and other adversaries can steal those communications,” he said.
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SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — The San Francisco 49ers were hit by another family tragedy with the announcement that star left tackle Trent Williams' wife gave birth to a stillborn son late last week. Sondra Williams announced on Instagram on Sunday that she gave birth to Trenton O’Brien Williams Jr. on Nov. 24. Williams also wrote that she was initially pregnant with twins and lost the other child earlier in the pregnancy. “I can’t even begin to describe how I felt leaving the hospital without you,” she wrote. “Nor how it feels being home celebrating Thanksgiving without my baby in my arms. My heart is broken and my arms are empty. But I know you’ll always be near watching over me and your sisters. And for that, my heart smiles with gratitude. Thank God for allowing us to bond for 35 weeks and for me to birth you so I could hold you in my arms. I’m at peace knowing you will never have to suffer.” Williams wrote that her son was diagnosed with Trisomy 13, a genetic condition also known as Patau syndrome that affects how the face, brain and heart develop, along with several other internal organs. Trent Williams spent time last week at the hospital and grieving with his family, including the couple's three young daughters. “He was there at the hospital with her and got to meet him and say bye,” coach Kyle Shanahan said Monday. "Then he had to cremate him on Friday. So he’s been dealing with that and he’s working through it. But we’re all just trying to be here for him through it all.” This is the second tragedy to hit the Niners in recent weeks. Cornerback Charvarius Ward's 1-year-old daughter , Amani Joy, died on Oct. 28. She had born prematurely with Down syndrome and had open-heart surgery in April 2023. Ward spent a few weeks away from the team and returned to the field for the first time on Sunday. Williams has missed the last two games with an ankle injury but Shanahan said he is hoping to be able to the return as soon as he's healthy. “It’s hard as a coach. It’s hard as a friend. It’s hard as a family member. It’s hard for everybody," Shanahan said. ”But we spend a lot of time with each other. That’s what’s cool about a football team. Whatever you go through, the good or the bad, we go through it together. I do like that they have a group of guys they can go to, a group of guys that can see them every day. You can never escape that full grief and stuff. But I do think it’s nice for those guys to have another avenue to get out on the football field, to get around teammates and things like that." ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl Josh Dubow, The Associated Press
UPDATE 4-South Korea's Yoon apologises for martial law, but does not resign ahead of impeachment vote
Greg Quatchak, chief at Ingomar Volunteer Company, is running out of ideas. The McCandless resident has been part of Ingomar VFC 187 for 50 years, and chief for 24. It was a family thing, following his father’s footsteps. Living on Harmony Road, across the street from the main station, he fondly remembers his dad volunteering. “I signed up as soon as I was 17,” said Quatchak, now 67. He is being recognized in December for 50 years of service. Recruiting doesn’t seem as easy these days, he acknowledged. “Things have changed,” Quatchak said. “Volunteer fire departments are facing tough challenge,s and our call volumes are steadily increasing annually. People are busy.” Wess Amara, a lieutenant at the Ingomar VFC, works remotely in IT, so he can do his job while manning the station if needed. He’s an immigrant from Tunisia and feels it’s his duty to serve. “It’s my way to give back and help me feel better about myself,” he said. But Amara agrees things are different than what they used to be. “There’s a message issue. We can’t encourage young people. It’s a cultural shift,” Amara said. Ingomar VFC has 10 to 12 active volunteer firefighters, but Quatchak said it would ideal to have closer to 20. The company also has volunteers who perform administrative duties. The Ingomar station has recruitment events throughout the year, and several people do show interest. But they tend to shy away after learning about the commitment, saying they’ll return after family and life get less busy, Quatchak said. He understands this and hopes they do return. But that doesn’t help with current shortages. One day in November yielded seven emergency calls. Quatchak expects to have 700 calls just this year for Ingomar. ‘It goes in cycles’ The other McCandless firefighting units, Peebles Volunteer Fire Company and Highland Volunteer Fire Department, also experience high volumes, he said. Quatchak estimates Peebles will receive 1,000 by the end of the year. Highland is busy, too. “We have already surpassed 750 calls for the year and receive anywhere from 65 to 85 calls per month on average, so I project well over 800 calls for the year,” said Seth Merriman, recruitment coordinator for Highland. “With increasing call volumes and training requirements as the years go on, the demand on our volunteers has drastically increased.” Shawn O’Brien, Highland president, said recruiting often “comes in waves.” “If we get one to two people, then there’s a chance their friends will also join,” he said. “It goes in cycles.” Merriman agreed. “I think we have had our good years and our bad ones as well, but retaining the members is a whole other battle in itself. We have gone whole years without a single application, but we have had years where we have taken up to 10 in one year. We had one of those years back in 2021, but have unfortunately lost more than half of those 10 or so members,” he said. Quatchak said all three firefighting entities are required to attend every emergency call. Unfortunately, a bulk of the calls are false commercial alarms, which they have to answer. He said McCandless council recently approved a decision to require businesses to pay for repeat false alarms. But that doesn’t help the volunteer who is getting up to answer them. An obvious alternative is to have a paid fire department for the town, which Quatchak and Amara said would be a big expense for the taxpayers. They’re hoping it doesn’t come to that. They still get calls for cats in trees or locked doors, and they don’t mind because it makes such a difference when they see the gratitude of the people they help. Amara said visiting local schools and talking about fire safety is one of his favorite things to do. ‘Essentially a free associate degree’ There are some worthwhile incentives for volunteer fire departments in the area. The Allegheny County Fire Volunteer Education, Service Training Scholarship Program, or FireVEST, provides full scholarships for an associate degree or certificate program at Community College of Allegheny County, as well as training at the Allegheny County Fire Academy, according to www.ccac.edu. Of the 200 scholarships offered per year, 150 are for new recruits in exchange for a commitment of five years of service to a volunteer fire department in Allegheny County, while 50 scholarships will be awarded to existing volunteers in exchange for a commitment of five additional years of service. Merriman said there’s a project in progress with North Allegheny School Board and the county fire academy in which students can start at the academy during school as early as their sophomore year and would graduate with essentials of firefighting completed. That gives them the required training and qualifications to be an interior firefighter, as well as CPR/AED and first aid. “This would send them off already qualified to participate in the FireVEST scholarship through CCAC, essentially giving them a free associate degree of their choice,” Merriman said. Quatchak said he has a member who just earned a degree using the scholarship. And both McCandless and Allegheny County offer a tax credit of up to $500 each, a combined amount of $1,000. Local volunteer firefighters also receive free access to county pools, ice rinks and ski slope facilities. There’s a real community and family feel for the volunteers, a lot of camaraderie, said Quatchak. The Ingomar station still looks as new as it did when it opened in 2012. The station features a well-equipped fitness center for volunteers and their families. There’s a lounge and social area, kitchen, meeting rooms and areas for in-house training. A smaller substation is located on Old Perry Highway. The state requires 180 hours of training, including passing four modules. Quatchak said he doesn’t put pressure on a potential volunteer to complete training within a certain time period. “If you’re showing progress and you’re going to training, we allow them to take as long as they need,” Quatchak said. For residents living in Marshall and interested in the Marshall Volunteer Fire Department Township, visit www.marshallvfd.org . Franklin Park Volunteer Fire Company can be found at www.franklinparkvfc158.org . Visit www.bradfordwoodspa.org to find residential volunteering opportunities at the Bradford Woods Volunteer Fire Company.
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TINUBU TO ECOWAS LEADERS...We Must Learn From Ghana’s Democratic ExampleP resident-elect Donald Trump, largely ensconced at Mar-a-Lago in recent weeks, will make a rare appearance outside his Florida resort to accept the “Patriot of the Year” award at FOX Nation’s Patriot Awards on Thursday night. Trump, who has been announcing job picks as he builds out his administration, will travel to New York’s Long Island for the annual awards ceremony from the Fox News streaming platform. The event is being hosted by Fox host Sean Hannity, a friend of Trump’s who stepped in after the president-elect nominated Pete Hegseth, the original host, as defense secretary. The annual awards “honor and recognize America’s finest patriots, including military veterans, first responders and other inspirational everyday heroes,” according to Fox. Trump wrote on his Truth Social site earlier this week that he looks “greatly forward” to receiving the Patriot of the Year award, an honor he called “so nice!” The award marks the culmination of Fox’s reembrace of the president-elect, who has had an up-and-down relationship with the network in recent years. The network paid $787 million in 2023 to settle a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems over false claims by Fox personalities who echoed Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen from him through mass voter fraud. For more than six months ending in spring 2023, Fox had what many considered a “soft ban” on Trump appearances, its leaders looking to move on. But when it became clear that voters did not want to, Fox and its personalities were quick to embrace Trump again. You Might Be Interested In GUYANA – Legislator who brought down gov’t may have committed treason Make them cops Increased police powers vindicated, says DLP president Individual personalities have undergone their own journeys: Former Fox host Megyn Kelly drew Trump’s ire in a 2015 debate for her sharp question about his treatment of women; now she’s a popular podcast host and Trump supporter. The Dominion lawsuit uncovered emails in which former Fox host Tucker Carlson spoke disparagingly of Trump, including saying he “truly can’t wait” for Trump to become an ex-president. They’ve since made amends. Through it all, Trump has been quick to take to social media to criticize Fox for content he deems insufficiently loyal. Trump has begun to emerge more in public since spending most of his transition so far behind closed doors at his club in Palm Beach, Florida. This week, he made an unannounced appearance at a memorial service for three Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office deputies who were killed in a car crash last month. And this weekend, he will travel to Paris to join other world leaders and dignitaries for a ceremony to celebrate the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, which was devastated by a fire five years ago. SOURCE: APTrump announces newest round of Cabinet picks ahead of MAGA-studded Army-Navy game
Qatar tribune Satyendra Pathak Doha LuLu Hypermarket has officially launched the ‘Qatari Products: Our First Choice’ initiative at its D-Ring Road store, a week-long festival dedicated to promoting local products in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality. The event, running from December 12 to December 18, celebrates Qatar’s rich cultural heritage while showcasing locally produced food and non-food items. Since its debut in 2010, the festival has grown into a key event across all LuLu outlets, underscoring the retailer’s commitment to supporting small Qatari businesses and entrepreneurs. The initiative highlights a wide range of locally sourced goods, from fresh produce, dairy, and meats to health and beauty products, linens, and more. The inauguration ceremony was attended by prominent figures, including Saud Al Marri from the Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality, Ahmed Al Yafei from the Agricultural Affairs Department, Fardan Al Fardan, General Manager of Safwa Farm, and Mohammed Ismail Al Mohammed, General Manager of Mahaseel Company. Also present was Dr Mohamed Althaf, Global Director of LuLu Group, alongside senior officials from LuLu management and distinguished representatives from both public and private sectors. Speaking at the event, Althaf highlighted Qatar’s advancements in agriculture and food security. He said, “Qatar has made remarkable strides in strengthening its agricultural capabilities and enhancing food security. This initiative not only celebrates the nation’s agricultural progress but also showcases high-quality, pesticide-free products that reflect Qatar’s growing self-sufficiency.” Over the past eight years, Qatar’s agricultural sector has made significant strides, now meeting 80 percent of the nation’s food requirements. This achievement is attributed to the adoption of modern farming technologies and sustainable agricultural practices, which have boosted both the quantity and quality of local produce. Althaf further emphasised the festival’s role in promoting local farming traditions, stating, “This festival is a celebration of Qatar’s agricultural heritage, connecting consumers with the nation’s rich farming traditions and ensuring the preservation of knowledge passed down through generations.” The festival features over 300 locally produced items from 35 Qatari farms, including renowned brands like Baladna, Safwa Farm, Agrico Qatar, Dandy, and Al Maha, among others. These products demonstrate the country’s increasing self-sufficiency in food production, particularly in short-life perishables, which can now be supplied within a two-to-three-day window, ensuring continuous availability of fresh produce. LuLu Hypermarket has played a pivotal role in supporting Qatar’s agricultural sector, helping to market local produce and contribute to the nation’s food security and sustainability goals. The retailer’s long-standing partnerships with Qatari farmers have created a sustainable supply chain that benefits both consumers and local entrepreneurs. This year’s festival also invites visitors to explore Qatar’s culture, traditions, and culinary heritage. It is an opportunity for shoppers to support local businesses while experiencing the nation’s agricultural progress firsthand. Copy 15/12/2024 10
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Saquon Barkley wanted to be a student in team history before he had a chance to make some with the Eagles. The running back who had just signed with Philadelphia for $26 million guaranteed took a deep dive on some of the franchise’s greats out of the backfield. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.None
NoneJohn Parker Romo made a 29-yard field goal to lift the Minnesota Vikings to a 30-27 overtime win against the host Chicago Bears on Sunday afternoon. Romo buried the game-winning kick in his third career game for Minnesota (9-2), which won its fourth game in a row. The score capped a 10-play, 68-yard drive for the Vikings after the Bears went three-and-out on the first overtime possession. Sam Darnold completed 22 of 34 passes for 330 yards and two touchdowns to lead the Vikings. Wideout Jordan Addison finished with eight catches for a career-high 162 yards and a touchdown. The overtime defeat spoiled an impressive performance from rookie quarterback Caleb Williams, who completed 32 of 47 passes for 340 yards and two touchdowns for Chicago (4-7). D.J. Moore had seven catches for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Keenan Allen finished with nine catches for 86 yards and a score. Chicago erased an 11-point deficit in the final 22 seconds of regulation to send the game to overtime. Romo had put Minnesota on top 27-16 when he made a 26-yard field goal with 1:56 remaining in the fourth quarter. Williams trimmed the Bears' deficit to 27-24 with 22 seconds to go. He rolled right and found Allen wide open in the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown, and moments later he fired a strike to Moore for a two-point conversion. The Bears recovered an onside kick on the next play to regain possession at their 43-yard line with 21 seconds left. Cairo Santos' onside kick bounced off the foot of Vikings tight end Johnny Mundt, and Tarvarius Moore recovered it. D.J. Moore put the Bears in field-goal position with a 27-yard reception across the middle of the field, and Santos made a 48-yarder as time expired to even the score at 27-all. Minnesota led 24-10 after three quarters. Romo made a 40-yard field goal early in the third quarter, and Aaron Jones punched in a 2-yard run with 1:22 left in the period to put the Vikings on top by two touchdowns. Addison and Jalen Nailor each had receiving touchdowns in the first half for Minnesota. Roschon Johnson scored on a 1-yard run for the Bears' only touchdown of the first half. Chicago trailed 14-10 at the break. --Field Level Media
Increasingly, society has evolved into one where automation and technology rule the day. In this digital society, IT and cybersecurity risk management must be elevated to the same level as market risk, compliance risk, operational risk, and so on. Another area undergoing considerable change is third party risk management . What does the next year have in store for third party risk management? Considering this for Digital Journal is Brad Hibbert, Chief Strategy Officer & Chief Operating Officer at the company Prevalent . Hibbert divides his assessment into two key areas: the maturity of third party risk management and the necessity of transforming the process into ‘third party lifecycle management’ (and with this achieving greater stability). Third party risk management matures from experiment to expectation According to Hibbert, the year has been a record one “for third-party security incidents , with breaches such as MOVEit dominating the headlines.” In response there has been “regulatory pressure from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and several European entities to improve the governance over third-party outsourcing arrangements is also driving the evolution of third party risk management from a project that aims to manage risks to a program that addresses risks across a third-party lifecycle.” In other words, explains Hibbert, “third party risk managementis no longer an experiment; it’s an expectation. This maturation has solidified its position as a table stakes element in organizational risk management decision making.” So what does this mean for an enterprise? Hibbert suspects “despite economic uncertainty, inflation, and labor shortages, investment in third party risk management is expected to remain consistent into 2024. Board-level and executive-level engagement in third party risk management will persist due to continued third-party security incidents and regulatory pressure. While challenges in finding skilled third party risk management practitioners may continue, efficiency and effectiveness in third party risk management programs will improve thanks to generative AI, machine learning, data analysis, enhanced automation, and program outsourcing.” Engagement from multiple internal teams will transform third-party risk management into third-party lifecycle management For the second area of inquiry, Hibberts predicts a transformation in third party risk management. He considers: “It’s not enough to manage risks, you have to manage the lifecycle of a vendor relationship to understand the context of the risks your organization is exposed to. Otherwise, third party risk management devolves into a check-the-box exercise. This will require third party risk management program owners to expand the scope of their efforts to include all parties that interact with third-party vendors and suppliers.” Why a lifecycle-based approach? According to Hibbert: “The third-party lifecycle encompasses all activities related to a vendor from cradle to grave – including vendor onboarding, ongoing monitoring, compliance, risk management, and offboarding. This evolution is driven by different personas and departments, each with their specific needs and interests.” As to internal firm dynamics, Hibbert predicts: “procurement is expected to play a more prominent role in driving third-party lifecycle management. Legal departments will automate clause detection and comparative analysis. Risk management will continue to be a core player, while operations will use data sets from various sources to enhance operational resilience and ensure quality. Audits will persist, as compliance and regulatory mandates become more complex. The involvement of various business areas in third-party lifecycle management is a trend that is set to continue.” Dr. Tim Sandle is Digital Journal's Editor-at-Large for science news.Tim specializes in science, technology, environmental, business, and health journalism. He is additionally a practising microbiologist; and an author. He is also interested in history, politics and current affairs.H alfway through their set, Muna address the elephant in the stadium. “We just wanted to acknowledge that someone very special is missing tonight,” says the indie-pop trio’s lead singer, Katie Gavin. It’s day one of All Things Go, an independent music festival that fans nicknamed Lesbopalooza due to its largely queer, female or non-binary line-up, including Chappell Roan . Except the day before she was scheduled to appear onstage at Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York, Roan pulled out . “We love Chappell so much,” Gavin continues, as the young, eager audience, a quarter of whom have donned pink cowboy hats in homage to Roan’s song “Pink Pony Club,” quiet down to hear what this wise stateswoman of sapphic pop has to say. “You know, we started as a queer band in 2014, so we’ve really been given the time and the grace that we needed to be nourished as artists.” Gavin leans over to plug her acoustic guitar into her amplifier as she goes on: “We wish nothing but that times a million for her, so sing this one for Chappell.” And with that, the trio launches into a strummy, slowed-down cover of Roan’s “Good Luck, Babe!” and the audience does as Gavin has gently commanded them to do. They sing every word in unison. They sway together, too, gently rocking from side to side in the purple and pink light. Naomi McPherson, Muna’s primary producer and second guitarist alongside Josette Maskin, was stationed behind a synth earlier in the evening, but is now center stage, accompanying Gavin on lead vocals. From the looks of it, they are prepping to conquer Roan’s spine-tingling vocals on the song’s epic bridge. They plant one foot in front of the other and cup the microphone in their hands. “I told you sooo,” McPherson belts out to the gobsmacked audience. They hold the high note long, like a diva, as the crowd erupts. I look to my left and see two young women crying. No one, myself included, seemed to expect this young musician in camo pants to be able to belt like Patti LaBelle. That’s the thing about queer artists, though: They are always brushing up against, bursting through, or staring down other people’s expectations about who they are and how they should behave. Editor’s picks The 100 Best TV Episodes of All Time The 250 Greatest Guitarists of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time In retrospect, Muna’s cover of “Good Luck, Babe!” at All Things Go was a remarkable thing to witness — and it stood in startlingly well for the highs, lows, and sheer chaos of the past year, when queer and non-binary acts like boygenius, Victoria Monét, Reneé Rapp, Towa Bird , Muna, Kehlani, Janelle Monáe, Billie Eilish, and Chappell Roan have dominated pop culture to such an all-encompassing extent that many in the media dubbed the moment a “ lesbian renaissance .” Start with the song: “Good Luck, Babe!” is quite possibly the only bop about compulsory heterosexuality to ever land within Billboard ’s Top Five. It was one of the leading contenders for 2024’s song of the summer , as clip after clip of Roan performing it on the festival circuit went viral, fueling the song’s momentum until it hit like a heatwave — scorching, inescapable, and all anyone could talk about. Second, there was the stark absence at Forest Hills of the song’s owner. Roan has been at the epicenter of this so-called renaissance, and her warp-speed transition from “ gaymous ” to famous has been bumpy , to say the least. In the course of a single summer, she went from living relatively anonymously to being stalked, harassed, and forcibly kissed by strangers, then subjected to multiple internet pile-ons for everything from her initial refusal to endorse a presidential candidate to attempting to set boundaries with her fans. None of these experiences are unique to LGBTQ+ artists, but together they highlight just how complex navigating mainstream success as a marginalized person can be. We want our queer pop stars whom we feel so seen by to see us, too. We want them to look and be just like us — even if that isn’t actually who they are. Finally, there was the Muna of it all. This is the band that arguably kicked off the whole sapphic pop, queer joy, whatever you want to call it movement a few years ago, when they released their feel-good hit single “Silk Chiffon” with Phoebe Bridgers. You could draw a straight — or not-so-straight — line connecting that song’s upbeat tempo and lyrics to Roan’s coy, queer flirtation in “Red Wine Supernova,” from Muna’s “she’s so soft like silk chiffon” to Roan’s “long hair, no bra, that’s my type.” In fact, McPherson even predicted in a since-deleted tweet from 2022 that “Silk Chiffon” would usher in an era of sapphic pop, much like the one we now appear to be living in. SO, HOW DOES IT feel to have predicted the future? “I was right,” says McPherson when we speak a few days before All Things Go. “You could call me Nostradamus. Naom-o-stradumus!” All jokes aside, they know they wouldn’t be here were it not for the queer artists who came before them. “We are standing on the shoulders of lesbian, queer, sapphic artists who’ve been doing this shit for so long,” McPherson says. Right again: Because as much as this overtly sapphic pop culture moment feels new to a large swath of young queer people, it’s happened before — in the Eighties and Nineties, when artists like Melissa Etheridge, Tracy Chapman, k.d. lang, and the Indigo Girls dominated MTV, VH1, festival lineups, FM radio, and the Grammys. “As a music historian, the way I see what’s happening right now is just a continuation of what’s been happening for a long time,” says Kaleb Goldschmitt, an ethnomusicologist and popular music scholar at Wellesley College. They note that while some might argue that the previous moment wasn’t as mainstream as what we’re seeing now, that’s not actually true. “Tracy Chapman in 1989 was extremely dominant,” Goldschmitt says. At the height of her commercial success, Chapman performed on Saturday Night Live twice in just over a year (once in November 1988 and again in December 1989); her self-titled debut album went to Number One on the Billboard charts, and, over the years, her hit single “Fast Car” has transcended time and genre to become an American anthem. Just last year, the country artist Luke Combs returned “Fast Car” to the charts, when his cover climbed to Number Two on Billboard ’s Hot 100 and netted Chapman the Song of the Year prize at the 2023 Country Music Awards. “Melissa Etheridge really broke through,” too, says Goldschmitt, and not just among lesbians: “Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise loved her.” Three songs from Etheridge’s 1993 album Yes I Am landed in Billboard ’s Top 40; 1993 is also the year the lesbian singer k.d. lang appeared with the supermodel Cindy Crawford on the cover of Vanity Fair . “The lesbian was all over the culture,” says Goldschmitt. “It was very mainstream.” So then why does this moment feel so different? Partly it’s the music. Mainstream lesbian artists in the Nineties existed along a very narrow sonic spectrum, spanning from outlaw country to roots-rock, with little room in between. (Queen Latifah didn’t publicly acknowledge her sexuality until 2021, and Whitney Houston’s long-rumored relationship with friend and confidant Robyn Crawford wasn’t confirmed until several years after the artist’s death in 2012.) A much wider range of acts exist today, with everything from indie rock and folk to bubblegum pop, R&B/funk, and hip-hop represented. Still, when I pressed a few of my queer pals on the biggest difference between the two moments, no one brought up genre diversity. They talked about the vibes instead. Revisit the sapphic music of the Nineties today and you’ll encounter songs about queer love that wrestle with shame and insecurity, or, at best, are shrouded in mystery and metaphors, like lang’s “Constant Craving” and Indigo Girls’ “Strange Fire.” Even Etheridge had to speak through codes. Alyxandra Vesey, a feminist popular music scholar at the University of Alabama, recalls how big a deal it was at the time that Etheridge’s breakthrough album was called Yes I Am. “But she also doesn’t get to say what the ‘am’ is,” says Vesey. Compare Etheridge’s careful omission to Rapp’s “Can a gay girl get an amen?” lyrics on “Not My Fault,” or Billie Eilish’s “I could eat that girl for lunch,” from her overtly sexual, sapphic hit single “Lunch,” and it’s like someone took a sledgehammer to the closet door. The vibe has shifted from caution to confidence, restraint to revelry. Now, queer pop stars get to say the previously unspoken part out loud. Even Etheridge is getting in on the fun. When a video of the artist mashing up her 1995 hit song “I Want to Come Over” with Roan’s wonderfully explicit “Red Wine Supernova” went viral over the summer, it was heralded by many as a full-circle moment for LGBTQ+ performers. “That song doesn’t exist without Etheridge, culturally,” Vesey explains, adding “But there’s just so much more specificity and delight in the specificity than we had access to 30 years ago.” To put it bluntly, the songs are hornier and happier now. And seeing young artists revel in their sexuality early on and without shame has been nothing short of transformative for Vesey and so many others who came of age in the era of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. As Goldschmitt says after I ask them to sum up their feelings on sapphic pop summer, “Boy, I wish I had something like that when I was young.” “To have something like that and have it be as fun,” they add, “would’ve been so important to my sense of who I was as a human.” IF ANY SONG acted as a primer for our current mainstream sapphic pop moment, it is Tegan and Sara ’s 2013 hit “Closer.” The synth-pop song by the Canadian duo played on repeat in between sets at All Things Go, as if to honor its legacy as the O.G. upbeat, gay pop song. And while “Closer” may be more demure than Billie Eilish’s “Lunch,” it is still, as Tegan Quin puts it when we talk over Zoom, “a super horny song!” I was 24 when “Closer” came out, and I can confirm that the lyrics “All I dream of lately/Is how to get you underneath me” made millennial lesbians feral the same way Towa Bird’s “Drain Me” sends younger queers into a hot-and-bothered tizzy today. Interestingly, though, while “Closer” introduced Tegan and Sara, who had previously operated in an indie/alt-rock lane, to a wider, more mainstream audience, it also solidified them as a queer band in ways they’d never felt labeled before. When they scored an early hit with “Walking With a Ghost” in 2004 they were just random successes on radio, Tegan Quin tells me. Nobody said it was a song for queer people — but they did with “Closer,” she recalls: “It was this very direct language.” The duo had a Billboard Hot 100 hit and a mainstream audience, but to the mostly straight masses, they were “queer icons.” When Tegan looks at this new explosion of lesbian and queer pop, she gets the sense that the battle over labels and who certain music is “for” may be over — a relic of the Obama years, like the individual mandate. She sees a mix of identities in the audience. “It’s people who are fed up with being forced the same shit. They want their pop star to be fucking weird and have an opinion,” she says, then adds, “It’s straight people, too, saying, ‘Why can’t I love queer music?’” I decided to test out Quin’s theory on a group of All Things Go attendees standing near the free piercing booth sponsored by Claire’s Accessories. Several of them tell me they are straight. No one has heard of “Closer,” but they all love Chappell Roan and Reneé Rapp. A lesbian nearby overhears my conversation and flags me down. “I think it’s nice that queer music is in mainstream spaces enough that it’s not just queer music at this point,” she tells me. Her name is Jes Klass, and she loves “Closer.” She thinks it could’ve been an even bigger hit than it was. The thing is, Klass says, “The world wasn’t ready then. It is now.” Or as Tegan puts it: “It’s like the cicadas. The ground started to rumble and we popped out early. But now they’ve all come out, and there’s too many to hold them back.” AS MONUMENTAL AS “Closer” felt to some of us at the time, it doesn’t hold a candle to what is happening today with “Good Luck, Babe!” You had to be in the know to know about “Closer.” You simply have to exist to encounter “Good Luck, Babe!” “Closer” peaked at Number 90 on the Hot 100 . “Good Luck, Babe!” debuted on the chart toward the end of April at Number 77 . By the end of September, it had rocketed to Number Four . You don’t move 73 spots up the Hot 100 without the support of a whole bunch of straight people. Chappell Roan is no longer your favorite artist’s favorite artist. She’s your grandmother’s, or at least your aunt’s. “Good Luck, Babe!” was probably playing over the loudspeakers at your local physical therapist’s office at some point today. Kelly Clarkson is performing it on her morning show . Jimmy Fallon is singing along to it on his late night show . Your Spotify algorithm is actually cueing it up right now, even though it just played on your “For You” playlist . That sound you just heard? That’s the sound of millions of straight women collectively adding the lesbian anthem about the tragedy of becoming some guy’s wife to their bachelorette party playlists. Vesey credits the current commercial appeal of sapphic pop to two major political and cultural events that occured in the 2010s: the mainstreaming of queer people in historically heterosexual institutions like marriage, and the commercial ascent of Ru Paul’s Drag Race . “Those two things allowed for queer life to be legible and acceptable in a way that’s very powerful,” Vesey says. Maybe. Or maybe it’s what Towa Bird says to me when we chat in her trailer after her All Things Go performance: “The lesbian stars have aligned.” Whatever the reason, Dan Ferguson is here for it. The 34-year-old Australian, who’s one of the people I met by the piercing booth, is not a lesbian. He’s a cis hetero man. He presumably doesn’t know what it feels like to be eaten out in the passenger seat of a casual fling’s car or to have his heart broken by a woman who trades her queer partner in for a husband. And yet he finds Roan’s songs deeply relatable. “It’s like when you go through wanting someone that doesn’t want you back,” he says. “Or, you’re doing the extra effort, but they aren’t reciprocating.” To Dan Ferguson, heartbreak is heartbreak. Love is love. Still, Roan’s music, and “Good Luck, Babe!” specifically, hits different for the LGBTQ+ community. Goldschmitt has spoken with several queer therapists who say the song has been a major theme for many of their clients, which makes sense when you realize its scope. “Good Luck, Babe!” makes quick work of both parties in a doomed relationship — damning the one in denial to a lifetime of heterosexual misery while joyously restoring the bruised ex to the tune of “I told you so.” “We have too many trauma narratives in queer music,” Goldschmitt says. “It’s very vindicating to have somebody say, ‘Well, good luck with that.’” That experience of feeling seen isn’t exclusive to Roan’s songs, not by a long shot. Nearly every queer fan I speak to at All Things Go describes the same sensation about a variety of artists from the line-up. Referencing Towa Bird’s “Drain Me,” which the artist has described as an ode to lesbian sex , Jes Klass says, “There’s nothing subtle about it. It’s just out there, and it’s beautiful to hear music that speaks to the kind of relationships that I’ve been in.” A friend of Klass named Michelle Liga tells me she identifies as bisexual, but says things might have been different if she had grown up with the music that is coming out now: “I would be a full-on lesbian.” Her comment reminds me of something Bird said when I asked her about the way fans are reacting to this year’s sapphic pop moment: “I think they are looking inward and finding things out about themselves and seeing those in queer artists.” Seeing your inner queer life reflected back to you by an artist, especially for the first time, can be an intoxicating experience, and I spy evidence of this intoxication everywhere at All Things Go — in the hundreds of people dressed up like Chappell Roan, in the screams from the crowd when Reneé Rapp and Towa Bird kiss on stage, and in the young fan with tears in their eyes watching Julien Baker perform. I see it in an All Things Go Instagram video , too, when a member of the festival’s social team asks a couple what they would like to say to the indie artist Ethel Cain, and one of them coyly responds “We’re looking for a thiiird,” while the interviewer laughs. I see it in my own excitement when I scream like the baby gay that I no longer am after Lucy Dacus joins Muna on stage to perform “Silk Chiffon.” And I see it in the overwhelmed venue worker who, while serving me a Bud Light, searches for a word to describe the LGBTQ+ fans he has observed over the weekend. “Not quite militant,” he says, but something like that. Of course, he might be militant too if his community was in the midst of a political backlash that threatens to strip the rights away of its most vulnerable members. As THEM’s James Factora explained in a recent essay , “Facing tremendous challenges, and struggling to find meaning in the world, it’s easy to understand why many young queer people would see openly LGBTQ+ celebrities as quasi-religious figures.” Trying to build a safe space for the LGBTQ+ community — one that embraces fan enthusiasm while maintaining artist security — was top of mind for All Things Go’s organizers. Looking back, Carlie Webbert, All Things Go’s manager of partnerships & experiential tells me she is proud of the festival’s non-musical programming. There were multiple organizations like the Ally Coalition and Calling All Crows hosting onsite workshops that made space for LGBTQ+ people to find security and comfort. “It’s beautiful what is happening with our community,” Webert says. “But we have to de-platform it being all about the artists, because they aren’t the only ones that make it like this. We all do.” LET’S GET ONE thing straight: Celebrity worship is not unique to the queer community. Parasocial behavior is older than Beatlemania, and every artist from beloved indie acts like Mitski to Ms. Americana herself has had to deal with stalkers, harassment, and countless other unwanted advances from their stans. That said, throughout history, LGBTQ+ people have found special refuge in the stars who proudly accepted us — pauses to salute Cher — so it’s understandable that queer fan culture has intensified as the number of actual queer artists, not just allies, multiplied over the past few years. It’s been obvious to anyone paying attention, especially the artists. “Gay people are lethal,” declares Reneé Rapp, the delightfully uncensored lesbian pop star with a knack for yapping and a booming, Broadway-trained voice. She gathers her long blonde hair in both her hands and tosses it behind her shoulders like she’s in a Pantene Pro-V commercial. “It’s a very specific kind of intensity.” Rapp has just returned from a series of performances in Europe, and we’re talking over Zoom about the signs people hold up at her shows. It’s been a hot topic of conversation in the comments section of her fans’ TikTok videos . She’s seen everything from the standard, objectifying “Show me your tits” to the more original but equally vulgar and offensive “Reneé Rapp, give me a pap.” Like several other queer Gen Z artists, Rapp isn’t afraid to call out the handful of fans she says take things too far. Speaking about the “show me your tits” signs, Rapp goes off at a rapid clip: “You do realize that’s super weird, right? Like, that’s just harassment.” Her voice has the same sharp tone and slight Valley Girl intonation as the Mean Girl she famously played (“So you agree. You think you’re really pretty”), but whereas Regina George’s edge is buried underneath passive-aggressive comments that make you wonder what she thinks of you, Rapp’s is right there on the surface telling you you’re a clown. She speaks in long, obscenity-laced ribbons about how wonderful and intense the sapphic pop moment has been. On the one hand, it’s all she ever wanted. It’s her dream come true. She feels so lucky that she and her friends get to be at the forefront of culture when historically that hasn’t always been true for lesbians. She says it feels ten times bigger than her. Also, she just loves seeing straight people squirm: “They don’t know what to do! They’re all, like, having a panic attack,” Rapp says. It’s clear that she is just as thrilled as her fans are about mainstream queer culture. On the other hand, she didn’t get into this business to be harassed. Returning to the subject of the signs, Rapp says, “I wish that you could read that sign back from my point of view and understand how fucking weird and derogatory that is.” I listen and nod along as she continues thinking it through aloud: “But you won’t and you never will. But I don’t know. I have empathy that it’s really exciting. Frankly, it’s really fucking exciting for me, too. Now, does that mean I would ever verbally harass someone because I was so excited? No. And people love to do that shit.” Rapp’s reflection grows even more searing when she starts to unpack the strange combination of empathy and frustration she feels when the harassment comes specifically from gay women. There’s a part of her that gets it. She’d be “tweaking” too if she saw someone like DeJ Loaf when she was a kid. She also understands how unfair the tendency to hold LGBTQ+ people to a higher standard is, and how ridiculous it is that we have such comparatively low expectations for men. Still, she says, it cuts deeper when it comes from her community. “You’re just used to men being disappointing,” Rapp says. “I’m doubly disappointed if it’s a girl.” Being a queer person during the sapphic pop moment? Outstanding. Being one of the sapphic pop stars at its center? Evidently extremely complicated. For all her racing thoughts, Rapp summarizes her experience with an apt metaphor: “At the nucleus, it’s lit. All the other things around it are fucking crazy.” EVERY ARTIST I SPOKE TO for this article understands just how important representation is. Having a group like Tegan and Sara to look up to when they were kids mattered a great deal to Muna, so it means the world to them to be able to do it for kids today. “We’ve had two songs, ‘I Know a Place’ and ‘Silk Chiffon,’ that have been claimed by the queer community, and I’m absolutely addicted to that feeling,” Gavin says. “I want to do it again and again.” At the same time, the tension is real for queer artists who want to focus on their music, but find their identity constantly tied to their work. “It’s hard because our identity is so important to who we are and to our politics,” Maskin says — but having to constantly worry whether it will limit or define their success is exhausting. “It should just be about the fucking music,” she adds, “but with where we’re at with this conservative backlash, we aren’t given the opportunity to just be artists.” That’s because the kids today need their queer heroes more than ever, even if, as Bird tells me, it was never her intention to take on that role. Muna is hardly the only band to express hesitation about discussing their identity publicly. Several LGBTQ+ artists have said the topic is difficult to navigate for a variety of reasons. Some, like Eilish and Roan, are still exploring and coming to terms with various facets of their identity — a process that, Eilish wisely pointed out in this very publication , can take a lifetime. Roan made a similar point when she spoke to Rolling Stone in October, saying she still feels uncomfortable being gay sometimes. “I don’t get why this is such an issue for me,” Roan said. I do. Internalized homophobia casts a long shadow, and acceptance, much like queerness itself, is a spectrum. A lot of us spend our lives pinballing around that spectrum, making it difficult to describe our identity at any given moment. Most days I move through the world blissfully at peace with my lesbianism, but sometimes, like when I’m back in the South, my confidence collapses and shame creeps in. Typically, I feel at home within my community, but every so often I wonder if I’m an interloper, a “bad gay,” like Arthur Less . It’s hard enough to think and talk about your sexuality with yourself. It’s even more difficult to do with your loved ones, no matter how supportive they are. But talking about it with the public? Are you high? No wonder Sara Quin says the most stressful part of Tegan and Sara’s ”Closer”-era fame was how the media anointed them spokespeople for the queer community. She specifically remembers feeling bemused by the countless times they were asked to name their “favorite 20 Canadian LGBTQ+ artists”: “Who the fuck knows who’s even gay?” She laughs in exasperation. “You should see the music I listen to. I don’t even know if the people have faces, let alone what their sexuality is.” What is clear is that for many members of this generation of out and proud mainstream queer artists, visibility is both a blessing and a curse. Making matters more difficult is the lack of consensus among the lesbian and sapphic communities about what our relationship to mainstream culture should look like. Do we want our stars to assimilate or resist? Should they be radical or wholesome? Tops or bottoms? What about switches? Hopefully these questions taper off as the amount and diversity of mainstream queer artists increases, but we’re not there yet. As a result, new LGBTQ+ artists or media that break through often draw criticism for how they portray queerness. What makes one person feel seen, may harm another. None of this is the art or artist’s fault, but that doesn’t stop strangers on the internet from blaming them. Boygenius’ Lucy Dacus touched on this when she told Teen Vogue that “prejudice towards gay people comes from all sides, including gay people.” Her comment underscores the reality of identity policing, an experience that Rapp also knows a thing or two about. Reflecting on the “bisexual erasure” internet discourse sparked by her coming out as a lesbian back in January on Saturday Night Live , she fires back: “I really care about gay people, but I really don’t give a fuck what anybody thinks about me referring to myself as a lesbian at this time. I just don’t care.” But for every artist like Rapp, who unapologetically embraces the chaos of representation, there are just as many who’d rather not be labeled, precisely because of the scrutiny it invites — from both within and outside the LGBTQ+ community. “Identifiers can be cages or keys,” says Lizzy Plapinger, a multimedia artist, the former frontwoman of the indie-pop duo MS MR and a current curation and strategy advisor for All Things Go. As a queer woman, Goldsmith was just as delighted as the rest of us to experience the festival’s palpable sapphic vibes and safe-space environment. At the same time, she understands how things might feel different for the artists. She likens the experience of being labeled a “lesbian pop artist” to being referred to as a “female musician” as opposed to just a musician. “You don’t want to be painted as this one thing, because marketing-wise that closes off a world of audience,” Goldsmith says. The conversation is even more complicated for butch and transmasc individuals and people of color. Lauron Jockwig Kehrer, a musicology professor at Western Michigan University and author of Queer Voices in Hip Hop: Cultures, Communities, and Contemporary Performance , says that many queer artists of color resist labels that might limit them musically or personally — particularly terms like “lesbian” and “sapphic,” which are often coded as white . And for all the collective joy in the rise of artists like Roan and Rapp, you can’t escape the blinding whiteness of sapphic pop’s supposed golden era. Kehrer makes the point that this too is a continuation of the previous era when, with the exception of Tracy Chapman, all of the successful mainstream lesbian artists were white. “It’s complicated because yes, we’re having this moment of increased mainstream visibility, which is lovely,” Kehrer explains, “but we’re seeing the same patterns of white, traditionally attractive, largely femme gender presentation women getting more of the attention.” According to Kehrer, the barriers to major, zeitgeist-dominating success remain higher for artists like Janelle Monáe and Kehlani because Black queer genders are not always seen as marketable to an industry that thrives on replicating what’s already worked — read: white, cis, femme, and palatable. (Kehlani and Janelle Monáe both declined to comment for this story.) Towa Bird, who is Filipino and British, has experienced some of what Kehrer describes. “I do see the way that doors open for my white peers and the way they remain shut for people who look either like me or people who are not white.” Her observation is a stark reminder that the past year hasn’t changed everything for every artist equally. The roadblocks for queer people of color remain firmly in place. Unfortunately, the only ones who can do something about that are the gatekeepers, and as Rapp, blunt as always, points out, “The people at the top are still fucking cis white dudes. That didn’t magically change over the course of this last summer. Those bitches are still there.” Whether that shifts depends on where the sapphic pop moment goes from here. Rapp hopes that it “continues to filter through to other lesbian pop girlies who are not white who have been doing this shit before us.” Towa Bird isn’t anticipating regression. Sara Quin says there’s a good chance things will ebb and flow depending on the audience and cultural temperature. Tegan Quin thinks this year has created “an industry that understands that there is a huge audience for queer-leaning pop music.” Maybe mainstream artists will get queerer and butcher and more diverse. A gay girl can dream, can’t she? Or maybe sapphic pop’s golden era will sunset, and we will go back to mostly having straight white femme girlie pops at the top for a while. Nobody can predict the future, except Muna of course — and they say they sense a backlash coming. Gavin says she’s seen dialogue online debating if sapphic pop is overpopulated. McPherson knows of a few projects in the music industry and Hollywood that, they say, aren’t getting funded because people are wary of producing more queer storylines in Trump’s America. Maskin has a theory of her own: “Men are afraid everybody’s gonna just be fucking — which I feel like more and more of them are!” (A few weeks later, that idea feels like a sadly prescient commentary on the whiplash-inducing transition from sapphic pop summer to 2024’s election results.) Backlash or not, Muna are prepared to meet the moment. For them, success isn’t about staying in the spotlight but sustaining a career on their own terms. They want the rights to be able to live the lives they want and the financial security to create meaningful art, and they want that for “all the homies,” as Gavin puts it. That’s pretty much it. “The thing that I love so much about lesbians is that we’re good at community building,” Gavin says. She, McPherson, and Maskin have been around long enough to know that trends come and go, but community? Community lasts forever. So what does it matter if the mainstream structures that have begun to welcome us temporarily rescind our membership? As Sara Quin says, “We have always existed. We will always exist.” And the young queer fans will always have their music — even if they sometimes have to search harder to find it. It will be there for them.Donald Trump’s Economic Policies Clash with Fed’s Inflation StrategyFun-filled festive experience returning to popular venue in area
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DENVER — So you're the most valuable player of that annual Thanksgiving Day backyard flag football game. Or played tackle football on any level. Or ran track. Or dabbled in basketball. Or toyed with any sport, really. Well, this may be just for you: USA Football is holding talent identification camps all over the country to find that next flag football star. It's "America's Got Talent" meets "American Idol," with the stage being the field and the grand prize a chance to compete for a spot on a national team. Because it's never too early to start planning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where flag football will make its Summer Games debut. Know this, though — it's not an easy team to make. The men's and women's national team rosters are at "Dream Team" status given the men's side has captured six of the last seven world championships and the women three in a row. To remain on top, the sport's national governing body is scouring every football field, park, track, basketball court and gym to find hidden talent to cultivate. USA Football has organized camps and tryouts from coast to coast for anyone ages 11 to 23. There are more than a dozen sites set up so far, ranging from Dallas (Sunday) to Chicago (Dec. 14) to Tampa (March 29) to Los Angeles (TBD) and the Boston area (April 27), where it will be held at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The organization has already partnered with the NFL on flag football initiatives and programs. The numbers have been through the roof, with engagement on social media platforms increasing by 86% since flag football was announced as an Olympic invitational sport in October 2023. The participation of boys and girls ages 6 to 17 in flag football last year peaked at more than 1.6 million, according to USA Football research. "We pride ourselves on elevating the gold standard across the sport," said Eric Mayes, the managing director of the high performance and national teams for USA Football. "We want to be the best in the world — and stay the best in the world." Flag football was one of five new sports added to the LA28 program. The already soaring profile of American football only figures to be enhanced by an Olympic appearance. Imagine, say, a few familiar faces take the field, too. Perhaps even NFL stars such as Tyreek Hill or Patrick Mahomes, maybe even past pro football greats donning a flag belt for a country to which they may have ties. Soon after flag football's inclusion, there was chatter of NFL players possibly joining in on the fun. Of course, there are logistical issues to tackle before their inclusion at the LA Olympics, which open July 14, 2028. Among them, training camp, because the Olympics will be right in the middle of it. The big question is this: Will owners permit high-priced players to duck out for a gold-medal pursuit? No decisions have yet been made on the status of NFL players for the Olympics. For now, it's simply about growing the game. There are currently 13 states that sanction girls flag football as a high school varsity sport. Just recently, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles helped pave the way to get it adopted in Pennsylvania. Around the world, it's catching on, too. The women's team from Japan took third at the recent word championships, while one of the best players on the planet is Mexico quarterback Diana Flores. "Could flag football globally become the new soccer? That's something to aspire to," said Stephanie Kwok, the NFL's vice president of flag football. This type of flag football though, isn't your Thanksgiving Day game with family and friends. There's a learning curve. And given the small roster sizes, versatility is essential. Most national team members need to be a version of Colorado's two-way standout and Heisman hopeful Travis Hunter. Forget bump-and-run coverage, too, because there's no contact. None. That took some adjusting for Mike Daniels, a defensive back out of West Virginia who earned a rookie minicamp invitation with the Cleveland Browns in 2017. "If a receiver is running around, I'm thinking, 'OK, I can kind of bump him here and there and nudge him,'" Daniels explained. "They're like, 'No, you can't.' I'm just like, 'So I'm supposed to let this guy just run?!' I really rebelled at the idea at first. But you learn." The competition for an Olympic roster spot is going to be fierce because only 10 players are expected to make a squad. The best 10 will earn it, too, as credentials such as college All-American or NFL All-Pro take a backseat. "I would actually love" seeing NFL players try out, said Daniels, who's also a personal trainer in Miami. "I'm not going to let you just waltz in here, thinking, 'I played NFL football for five years. I'm popular. I have a huge name.' I'm still better than you and I'm going to prove it — until you prove otherwise." Around the house, Bruce Mapp constantly swivels his hips when turning a hallway corner or if his daughter tries to reach for a hug. It's his way of working on avoiding a "defender" trying to snare the flag. That approach has earned the receiver out of Coastal Carolina four gold medals with USA Football. The 31-year-old fully plans on going for more gold in Los Angeles. "You grow up watching Usain Bolt (win gold) and the 'Redeem Team' led by Kobe Bryant win a gold medal, you're always thinking, 'That's insane.' Obviously, you couldn't do it in your sport, because I played football," said Mapp, who owns a food truck in the Dallas area. "With the Olympics approaching, that (gold medal) is what my mind is set on." It's a common thought, which is why everything — including talent camps — starts now. "Everybody thinks, 'Yeah, the U.S. just wins,'" Daniels said. "But we work hard all the time. We don't just walk in. We don't just get off the bus thinking, 'We're going to beat people.'" Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
Well, this may be just for you: USA Football is holding talent identification camps all over the country to find that next flag football star. It's "America's Got Talent" meets "American Idol," with the stage being the field and the grand prize a chance to compete for a spot on a national team. Because it's never too early to start planning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, where flag football will make its Summer Games debut. Know this, though — it's not an easy team to make. The men's and women's national team rosters are at "Dream Team" status given the men's side has captured six of the last seven world championships and the women three in a row. To remain on top, the sport's national governing body is scouring every football field, park, track, basketball court and gym to find hidden talent to cultivate. USA Football has organized camps and tryouts from coast to coast for anyone ages 11 to 23. There are more than a dozen sites set up so far, ranging from Dallas (Sunday) to Chicago (Dec. 14) to Tampa (March 29) to Los Angeles (TBD) and the Boston area (April 27), where it will be held at Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots. The organization has already partnered with the NFL on flag football initiatives and programs. The numbers have been through the roof, with engagement on social media platforms increasing by 86% since flag football was announced as an Olympic invitational sport in October 2023. The participation of boys and girls ages 6 to 17 in flag football last year peaked at more than 1.6 million, according to USA Football research. "We pride ourselves on elevating the gold standard across the sport," said Eric Mayes, the managing director of the high performance and national teams for USA Football. "We want to be the best in the world — and stay the best in the world." Flag football was one of five new sports added to the LA28 program. The already soaring profile of American football only figures to be enhanced by an Olympic appearance. Imagine, say, a few familiar faces take the field, too. Perhaps even NFL stars such as Tyreek Hill or Patrick Mahomes, maybe even past pro football greats donning a flag belt for a country to which they may have ties. Soon after flag football's inclusion, there was chatter of NFL players possibly joining in on the fun. Of course, there are logistical issues to tackle before their inclusion at the LA Olympics, which open July 14, 2028. Among them, training camp, because the Olympics will be right in the middle of it. The big question is this: Will owners permit high-priced players to duck out for a gold-medal pursuit? No decisions have yet been made on the status of NFL players for the Olympics. For now, it's simply about growing the game. There are currently 13 states that sanction girls flag football as a high school varsity sport. Just recently, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Philadelphia Eagles helped pave the way to get it adopted in Pennsylvania. Around the world, it's catching on, too. The women's team from Japan took third at the recent word championships, while one of the best players on the planet is Mexico quarterback Diana Flores. "Could flag football globally become the new soccer? That's something to aspire to," said Stephanie Kwok, the NFL's vice president of flag football. This type of flag football though, isn't your Thanksgiving Day game with family and friends. There's a learning curve. And given the small roster sizes, versatility is essential. Most national team members need to be a version of Colorado's two-way standout and Heisman hopeful Travis Hunter. Forget bump-and-run coverage, too, because there's no contact. None. That took some adjusting for Mike Daniels, a defensive back out of West Virginia who earned a rookie minicamp invitation with the Cleveland Browns in 2017. "If a receiver is running around, I'm thinking, 'OK, I can kind of bump him here and there and nudge him,'" Daniels explained. "They're like, 'No, you can't.' I'm just like, 'So I'm supposed to let this guy just run?!' I really rebelled at the idea at first. But you learn." The competition for an Olympic roster spot is going to be fierce because only 10 players are expected to make a squad. The best 10 will earn it, too, as credentials such as college All-American or NFL All-Pro take a backseat. "I would actually love" seeing NFL players try out, said Daniels, who's also a personal trainer in Miami. "I'm not going to let you just waltz in here, thinking, 'I played NFL football for five years. I'm popular. I have a huge name.' I'm still better than you and I'm going to prove it — until you prove otherwise." Around the house, Bruce Mapp constantly swivels his hips when turning a hallway corner or if his daughter tries to reach for a hug. It's his way of working on avoiding a "defender" trying to snare the flag. That approach has earned the receiver out of Coastal Carolina four gold medals with USA Football. The 31-year-old fully plans on going for more gold in Los Angeles. "You grow up watching Usain Bolt (win gold) and the 'Redeem Team' led by Kobe Bryant win a gold medal, you're always thinking, 'That's insane.' Obviously, you couldn't do it in your sport, because I played football," said Mapp, who owns a food truck in the Dallas area. "With the Olympics approaching, that (gold medal) is what my mind is set on." It's a common thought, which is why everything — including talent camps — starts now. "Everybody thinks, 'Yeah, the U.S. just wins,'" Daniels said. "But we work hard all the time. We don't just walk in. We don't just get off the bus thinking, 'We're going to beat people.'"
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When Vivian Perez was growing up in the suburbs of Chicago as a first-generation Mexican American, sledding was the extent of her winter sports experience. Her parents weren’t raised with snow, so they couldn’t teach her skiing or snowboarding. Perez didn’t even entertain those activities as possibilities during her youth, which revolved around academics and helping her parents support her brother, who has nonverbal autism. “Our focus was elsewhere,” Perez said. “It was more like, when are we visiting family in Mexico? Who is picking up my brother? Who is taking me to my extracurricular activities?” But this winter, she will hit the slopes for the first time — thanks to an annual program that provides more than two dozen women of color with a free Ikon Pass, season-long ski or snowboard rentals, and a half-day lesson. Winter sports enthusiasts tend to be overwhelmingly white, with that group making up 88% of participants, according to this year’s demographic study by the National Ski Areas Association. The second-largest groups are Latinos and a combined population of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders — both at 6%. African Americans represent 1% of participants. (Those surveyed had the option to choose more than one ethnicity.) Downhill snow sports participants are also still mostly male, at 62%, the study reports. But changes are afoot in Colorado’s ski towns. In recent years, Vail Resorts has set the intention of elevating women into leadership roles at the corporate and executive levels, as well as at resorts statewide. Organizations like the BIPOC Mountain Collective and the National Brotherhood of Skiers are welcoming people of color to the mountains. And SheJumps , a Salt Lake City-based nonprofit group, is seeking to do the same through its Ikon Pass Scholarship for Women of Color . Perez, 32, first came across an Instagram ad for the program while making content for her herbal apothecary, Magia Botanica . With tempered expectations, she applied. “I don’t have these opportunities often — or at all,” the Denver resident said. “I just want to see what everyone’s raving about.” Once Perez was chosen as a scholarship recipient, preparations for the upcoming ski season soon began. Last month, she visited Christy Sports in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood to pick up her Burton snowboard rental for the season. While shopping, “complete imposter syndrome just sets in,” she said. “I was just (a) deer in the headlights.” Still, Perez is ready to start learning. She even convinced a friend to join her — as she put it, “I’m already motivating others to try things that maybe they didn’t think they would ever want to try.” Perez hopes to overcome her fear and get comfortable on her snowboard by next spring. “I still remember my little-kid self, who didn’t know what sledding was,” she said. “And now here I am, 32 years old, saying: ‘You know what, let’s go snowboarding.’ “ SheJumps helps more than 4,000 women and girls, along with nonbinary people, through its outdoor programs each year. The Ikon Pass program awards 30 annual scholarships while drawing hundreds of applications. This year, seven Colorado residents were among those chosen. Claire Smallwood, the executive director and co-founder of SheJumps, has made it her mission to diversify the slopes. The 17-year-old nonprofit started the Ikon scholarship program in 2019 after receiving a private donation of eight passes. “We could give those passes to anyone we wanted, and we thought: ‘Well, who’s the most excluded from the demographic of people that are going skiing?’ ” said Smallwood, 39. “With our mission focus, we decided it was women of color.” SheJumps now works institutionally with Alterra Mountain Co., which owns the Ikon Pass, on the initiative. In total, 106 scholarships have been awarded. In Colorado Springs, the nonprofit Blackpackers aims to serve underrepresented communities by teaching outdoor skills like wilderness first aid, providing low-cost or free gear and excursions, and creating networking opportunities in the outdoor industry. Among its programs, the group has partnered with Arapahoe Basin for four years to extend free lift tickets, half-day lessons, gear and clothing to participants in ski and ride days. Between 300 and 400 people sign up every year, though Blackpackers can take only up to 70 per day. The organization planned to host ski and ride days on Dec. 21 and April 12. Blackpackers is the brainchild of executive director Patricia Cameron, who founded it as a club in 2017 after her first backpacking trip. She invited friends on adventures, but they couldn’t afford the gear. So Cameron saved her overtime pay as an EMT to build up a collection of used gear. “I created it to fill a need and be a part of my community,” she said. Growing up as a Black woman in Maryland, the outdoors were familiar to her. She recalls family reunions hosted outside with food and activities. But she notes that the definition of “outdoorsy” has shifted over the years. “We’ve always been going outdoors, especially recreating,” Cameron said. “Outdoor adventure is where most people kind of draw the barrier.” For the broader Black community, one hurdle in trying winter sports is tied to the historic challenge of accessing wealth, such as loans, at the same rate as their white counterparts, Cameron said. This systemic wealth gap doesn’t encourage Black people to shell out hundreds of dollars to attempt skiing or snowboarding for the first time, Cameron said. And they still face discrimination, even in the wilderness. Sometimes, it’s in the form of microaggressions, and, at other times, it’s overt racism, Cameron said. For example, when hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2022, Cameron was told by a stranger that she didn’t belong there. “That’s what can make the experience so tough,” Cameron said. Mma Ikwut-Ukwa, 26, didn’t spend her youth in Pennsylvania doing outdoor activities with her family. It wasn’t until her undergraduate years as an astrophysics major at Harvard University that she went camping for the first time. The experience inspired her to join a backpacking club and start leading trips herself. Ikwut-Ukwa moved west after college to work in the outdoor industry. Now on a break from her doctorate program in planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, she’s made Colorado her home for over a year, working backpacking trips and teaching wilderness medicine. She learned about SheJumps’ Ikon Pass program on Instagram and applied. Earlier in the fall, Ikwut-Ukwa was selected. “I’ve been wanting to learn how to ski or snowboard for so long, but it’s just so hard to get into,” said Ikwut-Ukwa, who lives in Estes Park. “The scholarship breaks down a lot of the main barriers to doing it.” She highlighted major challenges including the staggering costs associated with snowboarding and the lack of mentorship available to marginalized people on the mountains, including herself as a Black woman. People of color — “having been historically excluded from these sports,” Ikwut-Ukwa said — often don’t have the easy access that can be facilitated by friends who lend gear and offer tips. But now she can put the money she’s saved through the scholarship toward more lessons. Since picking up her GNU-brand snowboard rental last month, Ikwut-Ukwa has already hit the slopes at Eldora Mountain Resort. Her free snowboarding lesson is booked at Winter Park, and she hopes to make the trek to Steamboat Ski Resort — also on the Ikon Pass. She’s looking forward to making progress and spending time with friends. Her long-term goal is to master backcountry skiing or splitboarding, which involves using a halved snowboard to climb uphill, then reattaching the halves to ride downhill. Ikwut-Ukwa is excited — and keeping her schedule open for shredding. “I have so many days that I can get out and go skiing this season,” she said. Want more sports news? Sign up for the Sports Omelette to get all our analysis on Denver’s teams.
TCN zai yi gyare-gyare a Abuja‘Let’s not panic’: Canada picks up the pieces after ugly Latvia loss at world juniors
Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Quantum-Si (NASDAQ:QSI)US stocks rose Monday, with the Dow finishing at a fresh record as markets greeted Donald Trump's pick for treasury secretary, while oil prices retreated on hopes for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah. The Dow climbed one percent to a second straight all-time closing high on news of the selection of hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to lead the critical economic policy position. A widely respected figure on Wall Street, Bessent is seen as being in favor of growth and deficit reduction policies and not known overly fond of trade tariffs. The market "breathed a sigh of relief" at Bessent's selection, said Art Hogan from B. Riley Wealth Management. But after an initial surge Monday, the gains in US equities moderated somewhat. While investors are enthusiastic about the possibility of tax cuts and regulatory relief under Trump, "we do have to face the potential for tariffs being a negative as well as a very tight market around immigration, which is not positive for the economy," Hogan said. Earlier, equity gains were limited in Europe as growth concerns returned to the fore with Germany's Thyssenkrupp announcing plans to cut or outsource 11,000 jobs in its languishing steel division. Currently around 27,000 people are employed in the steel division, which has been battered by high production costs and fierce competition from Asian rivals. Elsewhere, crude oil prices fell decisively as Israel's security cabinet prepared to decide whether to accept a ceasefire in its war with Hezbollah, an official said Monday. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations have all pushed in recent days for a truce in the long-running hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, which flared into all-out war in late September. Speaking on condition of anonymity, an Israeli official told AFP the security cabinet "will decide on Tuesday evening on the ceasefire deal." And bitcoin's push toward $100,000 ran out of steam after coming within a whisker of the mark last week, on hopes that Trump would enact policies to bring the cryptocurrency more into the mainstream. Bitcoin was recently trading under $96,000, having set a record high of $99,728.34 Friday -- the digital currency has soared about 50 percent in value since Trump's election. This week's data includes a reading of consumer confidence and an update of personal consumption prices, a key inflation indicator. Those reporting earnings include Best Buy, Dell and Dick's Sporting Goods. Sign up to get our free daily email of the biggest stories! New York - Dow: UP 1.0 percent at 44,736.57 (close) New York - S&P 500: UP 0.3 percent at 5,987.37 (close) New York - Nasdaq: UP 0.3 percent at 19,054.84 (close) London - FTSE 100: UP 0.4 percent at 8,291.68 (close) Paris - CAC 40: FLAT at 7,257.47 (close) Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.4 percent at 19,405.20 (close) Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.3 percent at 38,780.14 (close) Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: DOWN 0.4 percent at 19,150.99 (close) Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,263.76 (close) Euro/dollar: UP at $1.0495 from $1.0418 on Friday Pound/dollar: UP at $1.2564 from $1.2530 Dollar/yen: DOWN at 154.23 yen from 154.78 yen Euro/pound: UP at 83.51 pence from 83.14 pence West Texas Intermediate: DOWN 3.2 percent at $68.94 per barrel Brent North Sea Crude: DOWN 2.9 percent at $73.01 per barrel bur-jmb/dwGreat Osobor scored 12 points, grabbed six rebounds and had three assists in 18 minutes of playing time as Washington wrapped up nonconference action with a 90-53 rout of NJIT on Sunday afternoon in Seattle. Zoom Diallo came off the bench to contribute 12 points and a game-high five assists for the Huskies (9-4), and Wilhelm Breidenbach, who missed Monday's 79-70 upset loss to Seattle U., added 10 points and five rebounds. Sebastian Robinson led the Highlanders (2-12) with 16 points, Tim Moore Jr. scored 14 and Ari Fulton added 11. NJIT, which suffered its third consecutive defeat and dropped to 0-9 on the road, played without leading scorer Tariq Francis (18.6 ppg) because of an ankle injury. The Huskies shot 34 of 61 from the field (55.7 percent) and were 10 of 24 from 3-point range. NJIT was 19 of 51 (37.3 percent) and just 3 of 17 from distance. Washington forced 13 turnovers while committing just five, leading to a 17-4 edge in points off miscues. The Huskies also had sizable advantages in points off the bench (47-4), in the paint (42-24) and in fastbreak scoring (17-0). The Huskies led 46-26 at the half as Osobor, Breidenbach and Mekhi Mason each scored seven points. Osobor scored the game's first five points and Mason made a 3-pointer to give the Huskies an 8-2 lead. A jumper by Mason extended the lead to 26-16 with 8:30 left in the first half. The Huskies continued to pull away, with Jase Butler capping an 8-0 run with a 3-pointer to make it 42-22 with 2:29 remaining before the intermission. A 9-0 run gave Washington its first 30-point lead of the day at 60-30 with 15:24 still to play. The Huskies led by as many as 40 on Luis Kortright's fastbreak layup at the 7:09 mark. Mason, Kortright, Christian King and KC Ibekwe all scored nine points for Washington. Washington resumes Big Ten Conference play Thursday when Maryland makes a trip to the West Coast. The Highlanders have one more nonconference game before opening America East play Jan. 9. --Field Level MediaAccused elderly bank robber tells judge he only has social security
Not even the great Don Bradman drew such a crowd. At the MCG on Monday, more than 50,000 fans had walked through the turnstiles by lunchtime, making the total attendance of the Boxing Day Test between Australia and India more than 351,000. The five-day attendance tally, which was still growing during Monday afternoon’s play, is now the largest attendance for any Test in Australia. It eclipsed the 350,534 who watched the six-day Test between Australia and England at the MCG in 1937, where Bradman scored 270 in . Joel Morrison, Cricket Australia’s general manager for events and operations, said officials had been “blown away” by support of fans during the match. “The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is a blockbuster event, and it has been fantastic to see such strong attendances right across the summer,” he said. The record was set despite a lower-than-expected turnout on Boxing Day of 87,242. Every ticket had been sold, but temperatures close to 40 degrees celsius kept thousands of purchasers away. It left the crowd well short of the Boxing Day record of 91,112 set against England in 2013. Yet subsequent turnouts have exceeded expectations, with 85,147 coming on day two, 83,073 on day three and 43,867 on day four, Aniother surge on Monday pushed the crowd past the record. The match will not come near the record for the largest Test cricket attendance – over 465,000 watched the 1999 match between India and Pakistan at Eden Gardens in Kolkata. But the colourful stands and carnival atmosphere throughout the Boxing Day Test are proof of the status of the rivalry between Australia and India. Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley described the clash before the series as . A large proportion of the attendance in Melbourne this year has been Indian supporters. Morrison praised the turnout, saying it “demonstrates the power of cricket to bring communities together”. At the start of Monday, both teams still had a chance to win, and fans took advantage of cheaper tickets. Adults were charged $10, and those aged 15 and under were allowed in free. “A big thank you to Australian cricket fans for your ongoing support of our great game,” Morrison said. The interest in this Test series has helped quieten critics of the five-day format, which now competes with one-dayers and T20 matches in the international calendar. Ashes clashes between Australia and England have retained their status as cricket’s most prestigious arena, and the growing rivalry in the Border-Gavaskar trophy – aided by India’s economic might – means Test cricket, at least among these three nations, appears in good health. The MCG will host another Test this summer. The multi-format women’s Ashes will conclude with a pink ball clash starting on 30 January.Adani's 'renewable energy marvel' trapped in US bribery indictment
Missouri judge upholds state ban on transgender health care for minorsEmily M. Leproust Sells 1,654 Shares of Twist Bioscience Co. (NASDAQ:TWST) StockLautaro Martinez ended a near two-month goal drought as Inter Milan closed to within one point of Serie A leaders Atalanta by sweeping aside Cagliari 3-0. Martinez had gone eight matches since last finding the back of the net against Venezia on November 3 but after Alessandro Bastoni opened the scoring in the 54th minute, the Argentina international struck in Sardinia. The Inter captain took his tally against Cagliari to 10 goals in as many games after 71 minutes before Hakan Calhanoglu capped an excellent night for the visitors from the penalty spot a few moments later. Inter’s fifth-successive league victory led to them temporarily leapfrogging Atalanta, who reclaimed top spot but saw their lead cut to a single point following a 1-1 draw at Lazio. Gian Piero Gasperini’s side were grateful for a point in the end after falling behind to Fisayo Dele-Bashiru’s first-half strike, only drawing level with two minutes remaining thanks to Marco Brescianini. Lautaro Valenti’s last-gasp strike condemned rock-bottom Monza to a 10th defeat in 18 matches as Parma edged a 2-1 victory, while Genoa defeated Empoli by the same scoreline.
Kroger stock hits 52-week high at $60.35 amid robust growth
Key Takeaways Despite most of Gen Z thinking that their jobs could be replaced with AI in the next decade, the vast majority are still using AI to help complete office tasks — and they're open about it. A new survey released on Monday from Google assessed the AI habits of 1,005 full-time U.S.-based knowledge workers aged 22 to 39. Google called the group "young leaders" because they're currently in leadership positions or aspire to hold one at work. The survey found that 93% of Gen Z respondents from 22 to 27 years old are using two or more AI tools like ChatGPT or Google Gemini AI per week. In comparison, 79% of millennials ages 28 to 39 indicate that they're doing the same. Related: Worried About AI Stealing Your Job? A New Report Calls These 10 Careers 'AI-Proof' These AI users are utilizing the technology to take meeting notes, write emails, and overcome language barriers. They aren't secretive about talking to ChatGPT either: More than half of them share AI-fueled insights and experiences with their coworkers. Three in four have even recommended AI tools they have had positive experiences with to their peers. "Rising leaders are not only advocating for AI—they're deploying this technology in meaningful ways, from improving communication with colleagues to freeing up time for strategic work," said Google Workspace VP of Product Yulie Kwon Kim in a press release . Related: Google's CEO Says AI Is Now Responsible for 25% of 'All New Code' Created at the Company AI's writing abilities appeal to Gen Z and millennial workers who use it in the workplace. 70% of the survey respondents said that they have used AI to help draft an email response, while 88% said that AI can help them find the right tone when they write. AI also brings out leadership potential and carries promise. About four in five respondents want to use AI to become better managers and better lead teams. Half say AI carries great potential to automate repetitive tasks so that they can focus on strategic work. These emerging leaders "are not simply using AI as a tool for efficiency, but as a catalyst to help grow their careers," Kim stated. While AI can help grow careers, it also has the potential to replace jobs. Another survey released earlier this month by tech education firm General Assembly showed that 62% of Gen Z believed AI would replace their jobs within the next 10 years while a separate study from Duke University found that 61% of large U.S. firms plan to use AI to automate tasks previously carried out by humans within the next year. Related: Google's AI Is Now Appearing in Gmail and Docs
Hello Group Inc. ( NASDAQ:MOMO – Get Free Report ) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors acquired 7,730 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 960% compared to the typical volume of 729 call options. Hello Group Stock Up 0.7 % Shares of NASDAQ:MOMO opened at $7.49 on Friday. Hello Group has a 52 week low of $4.79 and a 52 week high of $8.19. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $7.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $6.75. The company has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.72, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 0.51. Analyst Ratings Changes A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on MOMO shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hello Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America lowered shares of Hello Group from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Hello Group from $5.90 to $7.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Hello Group from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Benchmark decreased their price objective on Hello Group from $15.00 to $13.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 4th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $8.25. Institutional Trading of Hello Group Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BRIGHT VALLEY CAPITAL Ltd purchased a new position in Hello Group in the second quarter worth $22,553,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Hello Group by 20.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,716,809 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $22,736,000 after purchasing an additional 633,746 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Hello Group by 472.1% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,873 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 3,196 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in shares of Hello Group by 105.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 21,030 shares of the information services provider’s stock valued at $160,000 after purchasing an additional 10,818 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in Hello Group by 22.6% during the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 721,760 shares of the information services provider’s stock worth $4,417,000 after buying an additional 133,113 shares in the last quarter. 50.96% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds. About Hello Group ( Get Free Report ) Hello Group Inc provides mobile-based social and entertainment services in the People's Republic of China. It operates in three segments: Momo, Tantan, and QOOL. The company offers Momo, a mobile application that connects people and facilitates social interactions based on location, interests, and various online recreational activities, including live talent shows, short videos, social games, as well as other video- and audio-based interactive experiences, such as online parties, mobile karaoke and user participated reality shows; Tantan, a social and dating application; and other applications under the Hertz, Soulchill, Duidui, and Tietie names. Featured Stories Receive News & Ratings for Hello Group Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Hello Group and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .Dow ends at fresh record as oil prices pull back on ceasefire hopes
There is an absence of a clear legal framework and proper definitions when it comes to cyber violence against women, speakers said at an event yesterday.They urged for specific legislation to combat such crimes. The roundtable, titled "Scanning the Horizon: Addressing Cyber Violence against Women and Youth Through Policy and Awareness", was jointly organised by UNDP and The Daily Star at The Daily Star Centre. Anowarul Haq, assistant resident representative at UNDP, said digital violence is a reality we cannot ignore. "As the legal framework is weak and there is no clear definition of cyber violence, this issue must be addressed under specific legislation," he said. He urged the government to strengthen law enforcement agencies through specialised training, recruit gender-sensitive personnel, and incorporate cyber violence awareness into school curricula. Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Jyotirmoy Barua criticised the lack of clarity regarding digital rights and laws. "Our laws fail to define and address globally recognised forms of cyber violence, let alone ensure justice... We haven't even established the National Telecommunication Monitoring Center," he said. He called for judicial training on sensitive gender-related issues. Rezwan Islam, regional editor at Global Voices, stressed the absence of institutional policies on cyber violence. "A comprehensive policy is urgently needed in organisations," he said. Investments are necessary to create safer digital spaces, he added. Sharmin Ahmed, senior vice president at Mutual Trust Bank, linked a lack of digital literacy to harassment and fraud in cyberspace. She called for private sector involvement in enhancing digital literacy. UNDP Research Analyst Faisal Bin Majid urged women to remain vigilant and resilient against growing cyber violence. Sharmin Islam, gender team lead at UNDP, said her organisation is working to bridge the digital divide. "Women face new forms of harassment regularly, even while engaging in e-commerce. When they seek police help, a lack of expertise often worsens their problems," she said. She advocated for smarter policing and victim counselling services. Misinformation and disinformation targeting women, particularly during elections, were also discussed. Qadaruddin Shishir, fact-check editor at AFP, said such tactics are used for personal vengeance or political gain. "Alarmingly, the state was previously involved in spreading disinformation, and now political parties and groups are adopting these tactics," he said. The lack of counselling services for victims was highlighted by Maliha Tabassum, assistant professor at the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Bangladesh University of Professionals. She called for culturally driven programmes and a shift in the mindset of law enforcement. Golam Sarwar, a UNDP consultant, identified unequal power dynamics as the root cause of women's online harassment. He stressed genuine empowerment to create safer online spaces. Barrister Tazkia Labeeba Karim highlighted inadequacies in current laws. "There is no clear definition of digital sexual harassment, and a specific law is needed to tackle this issue," she said. Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Tasnuva Shelley underlined the importance of digital forensic expertise and educating lawyers and judges on cyber violence nuances. The event also showcased a virtual documentary on cyber violence against women, presented by Shahreen Tilottoma, programme officer at UNDP. Moderated by Tanjim Ferdous, in-charge of NGOs and Foreign Missions at The Daily Star, the discussion saw participants stressing collaboration between government bodies, social media platforms, and institutions to ensure a safer online environment. Speakers also recommended a national campaign to raise awareness, challenge victim-blaming, and promote respect for women in digital spaces.Virginia played a recurring role in President Jimmy Carter's long life , from his Navy stint in Norfolk in the 1940s when the young ensign sought to save money for a Buick, to a 1976 presidential debate at the College of William & Mary, and a 2019 Loudoun County stop in which he questioned the legitimacy of President Donald Trump's election. Carter, who died Sunday at 100, came out of nowhere to win the presidency in 1976, largely on his strength in the South, but Virginia was the exception — the one Southern state he did not carry. Forty years later, Virginia again was an outlier as the only Southern state that Trump did not carry in 2016. Carter took part in Virginia's first foray in the modern era of televised presidential debates. On Oct. 22, 1976, he faced off with President Gerald Ford at William & Mary’s Phi Beta Kappa Hall . The debate, moderated by ABC’s Barbara Walters, came 10 days before the election and drew an estimated 62 million viewers. Virginia reacts to death of former President Carter In April 1979, Carter became the first president to address Virginia Democrats' Jefferson Jackson fundraiser, touting his energy plan during an appearance at the Hotel John Marshall in Richmond. The 39th president was a frequent speaker at Virginia colleges and universities after he left office in 1981. Carter, who taught at Emory University in Atlanta following his presidency, kicked off a 1987 talk with students at the University of Virginia by referring to Thomas Jefferson: "When he left the White House (he) had better judgment than to become a professor at a college." Carter spoke fondly of his family's roots in Virginia. One of his ancestors, Thomas Carter, came to Virginia from England in 1635. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter — who died in November 2023 at 96 — married in July 1946. The Carters spent the first two years of their married life in Norfolk as Carter embarked on his Navy career, serving as an ensign on the USS Wyoming. Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford participate in a debate at the College of William & Mary in 1976. TIMES-DISPATCH During a campaign stop in Norfolk in September 1976, Carter said he and his wife moved to Norfolk four days after they were married in July 1946. Their first son, Jack — now 77 — was born at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth in July 1947. In November 1976, weeks after Carter was elected president, Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter Wilford Kale interviewed three Norfolk residents who had known the Carters in the 1940s. The Carters lived in the Bolling Square Apartments on Buckingham Avenue and were saving their money to buy a Buick. Their one-bedroom apartment rented for about $100 a month. Kale noted that in Carter's book "Why Not the Best?" the future president wrote that when he served on the Wyoming, he was paid $300 per month. Beyond the rent, he paid $54 for his food aboard the ship and $75 for a war bond, leaving $71. Donald Cottingham served as a junior officer with Carter on the Wyoming, a former battleship that had been converted as an experimental vessel on which the Navy tested prototypes of electronics, gunnery and other equipment. Cottingham said the ship was known as the "Chesapeake Bay Raider" because it headed out into the bay on a Monday and would return on a Friday. Cottingham said he and his wife, Christine, socialized with the Carters and other young couples during those postwar days. Christine Cottingham showed the reporter a small green autograph book that she used as a guest book at parties. One of the pages was marked "Mrs. and Mr. J.E. Carter Jr. Plains Ga. 5-12-48." Christine Cottingham said the Carters were not along one night when the young couples went to a familiar haunt at the Officers' Club, which they dubbed the "Wyoming Room." "We were having a ball, but the Carters were not with us. So, we decided to send them a collect telegram, saying that we would all be over soon to have a drink with them," she recalled. "It was about midnight, and we were all happy and having a good time," she said. "Well, we really didn't get over there until later and when we arrived" around 2 a.m., "our telegram was plastered on the front door (of the apartment complex) and written on it was: 'Go home. You are not welcome!' " The Carters left Norfolk in 1948, when he was accepted for submarine duty. "We weren't thinking of Jimmy or anyone else becoming president," Donald Cottingham recalled. "As ensigns, what we were thinking about was becoming lieutenant." When Carter’s father, James Earl Carter Sr., died in 1953, he was released from the Navy and returned to Plains, Georgia, where he took over the family’s peanut farming business. Carter served on the local board of education, in the Georgia state Senate from 1963 to 1967 and as Georgia’s governor from 1971 to 1975. As he contemplated a bid for national office, Carter came to Virginia and campaigned for Henry Howell's bid for governor in November 1973. During his 1976 presidential run, Carter made multiple campaign stops in Virginia, including to Alexandria and to Roanoke. He also made news when his campaign sent a mistaken missive to Lt. Gov. John Dalton, a Republican, thanking him for his supposed endorsement. Dalton, a future Virginia governor, wrote back: "The letter was obviously misdirected, as is your position favoring repeal of Virginians' right-to-work law and your running on a platform that is liberal, anti-defense, pro-busing and expensive." One of the notable aspects of Carter's 1976 campaign was that he spoke openly about his "born again" Christianity. In a June 1976 Richmond Times-Dispatch story about Carter's faith, Dwight C. Jones, then pastor of First Baptist Church in South Richmond and a future state delegate and Richmond mayor, said: "I think it's going to have an effect on the religious community. It's been a long time since we've heard a political candidate come out with that kind of explicit religious tone." Jones said Carter "has hit a major chord by campaigning in Black churches." But Jones added that he hoped Black people would "require an affirmation" from Carter on his stands that affect them "before we would run en masse to him." William & Mary government professor John McGlennon said Carter's debate in Williamsburg "came at a critical time in the 1976 campaign" as he worked to contrast himself with President Richard Nixon and Vice President Gerald Ford. "Carter carried his own luggage into the Williamsburg Lodge, where he and his staff prepared for the debate. The campus and community were buzzing with excitement about the attention coming with the debate, even if the student body was distinctly Republican, overwhelmingly favoring President Gerald Ford in a campus survey," McGlennon said in a statement on Sunday. In the 1976 post-Watergate presidential election, Carter won nationally, but narrowly lost Virginia to Ford by about 23,000 votes out of 1.7 million cast. (No Democrat would carry Virginia for president until Barack Obama in 2008.) U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., worked with Carter as a young law school graduate. “Jimmy Carter gave me my first job out of law school, and I have deeply admired his service since leaving the Oval Office," Warner said in a statement on Sunday. "His dedication to building homes through Habitat for Humanity has always brought back warm memories of my father, who also volunteered with the organization well into his eighties. Like much of the Greatest Generation, President Carter will be remembered by what he built and left behind for us — a model of service late into life, a tireless devotion to family and philanthropy, and a more peaceful world to call home.” During his presidency, Carter made appearances in Virginia related to politics, policy and recreation. Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, campaigns ib Oct. 23, 1976, in the Old Town section of Alexandria. ASSOCIATED PRESS For example, in September 1977, he campaigned in Roanoke, Norfolk and Williamsburg with Howell, who was making his third and final unsuccessful bid for governor. In April 1979, Carter attended the Democratic fundraiser at the Hotel John Marshall. The former Navy man made multiple trips to Hampton Roads, including a Memorial Day trip to Norfolk in May 1980, where he spoke aboard the USS Nimitz and welcomed home the Indian Ocean Battle Group after a lengthy deployment. As for recreation, Carter went fishing off Virginia Beach twice as president and once at Camp Hoover, a camp in Shenandoah National Park. During his 1980 reelection bid, Carter was beset by troubles — from the Iranian hostage crisis, including a failed rescue mission — to rising inflation and a nomination challenge from Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. That March, Rosalynn Carter addressed Virginia Democrats' annual fundraising dinner at the Hotel John Marshall. She shook hands with a Goochland County Democrat who wore a lapel button that read: "Still for Carter, Despite Everything." Then-state Sen. Doug Wilder, D-Richmond, endorsed Carter for reelection, though he said Carter’s domestic performance was "dismal." President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter wave to reporters as they walk to a car that took them to visit Camp Hoover in the Virginia mountains on Oct. 25, 1978. The Carters flew by helicopter to the late President Herbert Hoover's fishing camp 100 miles west of Washington, D.C., to spend a short time there. Charles Tasnadi, Associated Press Late in the campaign, Carter made two trips to the Virginia suburbs. He signed a $48 billion education appropriations bill at the Loudoun County campus of Northern Virginia Community College . Then, he signed a $796 million mental health package at the Northern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Fairfax County. In the 1980 election, Republican Ronald Reagan swamped Carter in Virginia by more than 135,000 votes — nearly 13 percentage points — as part of his national landslide. Wilder, the nation’s first Black governor, met with Carter in Virginia while he was president and in Georgia after he left the White House. In a telephone interview on Sunday, Wilder credited Carter as "the first American president I knew of who spent significant time on the need to invest in Africa" and establish independent nations there. "I was always impressed with his straightforward acumen," he said. Similarly, Wilder commended Carter, "a man of the South," for his appointment of Black people as judges and other high-ranking positions, such as Andrew Young, a former civil rights activist and congressman, as American ambassador to the United Nations in 1977, the first African American elevated to the position. "You pick a Black man to bring nations together, a Black man of the South, that was bold," the former governor said. Wilder said he was always impressed with Carter's intelligence and professional accomplishments, which he often hid beneath his image as a humble peanut farmer. Wilder "I feel that history will accord and afford him his rightful place in the pantheon of great world leaders," he said. Following his presidency, Carter tapped Virginia scholar Steven H. Hochman , who had helped research Dumas Malone's multi-volume biography of Thomas Jefferson, to help research his presidential memoir. In 1984, Carter delivered a lecture at Roanoke College, where he said the U.S. should work to reduce nuclear arsenals and to safeguard human rights. In July 2015, Carter visited the Costco on West Broad Street in Henrico County to sign copies of his book "A Full Life: Reflections at 90." During that stop, he had a reunion with former shipmate John Kaufman, 92, of Earlysville, after 68 years. Carter was 94 and his vice president, Walter Mondale, 91, when they appeared together in Loudoun County in 2019 for a donor retreat and auction at the Lansdowne Resort and Spa. Carter caused a stir in the Loudoun County appearance, when he suggested that Trump was an illegitimate president. "There's no doubt that the Russians did interfere in the election and I think the interference — although not yet quantified — if fully investigated would show that Trump didn't actually win the election in 2016," Carter told interviewer Jon Meacham at the time. "He lost the election, and he was put into office because the Russians interfered on his behalf." Trump, traveling in Japan, told reporters that Carter was a nice man, but "a terrible president." Trump posted on social media on Sunday: " The challenges Jimmy faced as President came at a pivotal time for our country and he did everything in his power to improve the lives of all Americans. For that, we all owe him a debt of gratitude." President Jimmy Carter addresses the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Virginia coast on May 26, 1980, upon its return from nine months in the Persian Gulf. The president said, “Your presence has been the major factor in protecting the lives of the 53 hostages still held.” Bob Daugherty, Associated Press In a 2015 interview with The Times-Dispatch, ahead of his book signing at the Henrico Costco, Carter said he wished he had done a few things differently. "I'm sorry I didn't send another helicopter to rescue the hostages in Iran, and I'm sorry that I didn't get a second term," Carter said. But the nation’s 39th president said he had few regrets. "I've had some regrets," he said, "but most of the time I have been overwhelmingly grateful and gratified at the way things have worked out in my personal and political life." Jimmy Carter and President Gerald Ford participate in a debate at the College of William & Mary in 1976. TIMES-DISPATCH Carter in Virginia, April 8, 1979 Masaaki Okada 09-25-1977 Jimmy Carter visits Virginia. Bob Jones 04-08-1979 Jimmy Carter in Virginia. Masaaki Okada 04-08-1978 Carter in Virginia Richmond Times-Dispatch In late October and early November 1973, Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter (left) visited Virginia to campaign for Henry Howell. BOB BROWN Democratic presidential candidate Jimmy Carter, campaigns Oct. 23, 1976, in the old town section of Alexandria, Va., a Washington suburb. (AP Photo) Anonymous President Jimmy Carter shows off his catch after an excursion on the yacht Gannet in Virginia Beach, Va., on June 29, 1978. The Carters were hosted by Norfolk attorney Peter Decker, who owns the vessel. Carter’s wife Rosalyn and daughter are behind and at his side. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma) Barry Thumma President Jimmy Carter holds up two of the fish he caught off Virginia Beach, May 14, 1979. At left is Norfolk attorney Peter Decker who hosted the president. (AP Photo/Bob Daugherty) Bob Daugherty FILE - President Jimmy Carter attends memorial services for eight servicemen killed in the unsuccessful attempt to rescue the American hostages from Iran, May 9, 1980, at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook, File) Dennis Cook FILE - Jimmy Carter, left, and Gerald Ford, right, shake hands before the third presidential debate, Oct. 22, 1976, in Williamsburg, Va. (AP Photo/File) STF President Jimmy Carter addresses the crew of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz off the Virginia coast on May 26, 1980, upon its return from nine months in the Persian Gulf. The president said, “Your presence has been the major factor in protecting the lives of the 53 hostages still held.” Bob Daugherty, Associated Press President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter wave to reporters as they walk to a car that took them to visit Camp Hoover in the Virginia mountains on Oct. 25, 1978. The Carters flew by helicopter to the late President Herbert Hoover's fishing camp 100 miles west of Washington, D.C., to spend a short time there. Charles Tasnadi, Associated Press President Jimmy Carter lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery, Nov. 11, 1978 to commemorate Veterans Day. Carter was slated to speak after the wreath-laying at the cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington. Soldiers assisting Carter are unidentified. (AP Photo/Ira Schwarz) Ira Schwarz Jimmy Carter, Democratic Presidential nominee, stands under the spot light during his audio check at the Beta Kappa Theater, Oct. 22, 1976, Williamsburg, Va., prior to his debate with President Gerald Ford. (AP Photo) Anonymous Jimmy Carter, Democratic Presidential nominee, stands under the spot light during his audio check at the Beta Kappa Theater, Oct. 22, 1976, Williamsburg, Va., prior to his debate with President Gerald Ford. (AP Photo) Anonymous 04-08-1979: President Carter, with Richmond Mayor Henry L. Marsh III, approaches the Hotel John Marshall. Don Long 09-06-1976 Jimmy Carter in Va. Richmond Times-Dispatch 04-07-1979: President Carter greets State Sen. Adelard Brault (left) upon his arrival in Richmond, while Lt. Governor Chuck Robb (right) son-in-law of the late President Lyndon Johnson peers over his shoulder. Also on hand are (center) Richmond Mayor Henry Marsh III and his wife. President Carter is making a brief visit to Richmond to attend a democratic fundraiser. amk/Bennett
The opinion article by Matthew Hooton (December 27) was both insightful and not politically partisan. It clearly shows the slow decline in most aspects of the New Zealand economy and world standing over the past 100 years. What he omitted to observe was the contribution to New Zealand over those years by the milking cow. From small beginnings, our milk production, year on year, and in spite of often adverse climatic and economic conditions, has continued to grow in value and in volume, and achieved in a mostly environmentally friendly way. The continuing security of that financial contribution to our country’s economy is unmatched by any other sector. May those heroines, the New Zealand dairy cows, be praised and keep on milking well into our future. Peter Jensen Tauranga.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — Fourteen North Korean nationals have been indicted in a scheme using information technology workers with false identities to contract with U.S. companies — workers who then funneled their wages to North Korea for development of ballistic missiles and other weapons, the head of the FBI office in St. Louis said Thursday. The scheme involving thousands of IT workers generated more than $88 million for the North Korean government, Ashley T. Johnson, special agent in charge of the St. Louis FBI office, said at a news conference. In addition to their wages, the workers stole sensitive information from companies or threatened to leak information in exchange for extortion payments, Johnson said.Romania's far-right Georgescu denounces cancelled vote outside closed polling stationGoogle’s new AI tool uses image prompts instead of text
The founder and chancellor of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), G. Viswanathan, distributed prizes for winners, who are government school students, for Thirukural recitation at a function held at its campus in Vellore on Sunday.According to a press release, S. Kannappan, Director, Department of School Education, was chief guest. The competition was held for government school students in eight districts including Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupattur and Tiruvannamalai for which prizes were given on Sunday. On the occasion, Sankar Viswanathan, vice-president, VIT, was present, the release said. Published - December 08, 2024 11:19 pm IST Copy link Email Facebook Twitter Telegram LinkedIn WhatsApp Reddit
Trump ‘can’t guarrantee’ tariffs on Canada and Mexico won’t make U.S. food pricierWASHINGTON The fall of the Syrian regime represents "a fundamental act of justice,' US President Joe Biden said Sunday after opposition groups ended over five decades of Assad family rule. The US president said blows dealt to Russia by Ukraine prevented the Kremlin from intervening to prop up ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and said Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah were unable to do so as well after being weakened following conflicts with Israel. "At long last, the Assad regime has fallen. This regime brutalized, tortured, and killed literally hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians. The fall of the regime is a fundamental act of justice," Biden said in nationally televised remarks delivered from the White House. "It's a moment of historic opportunity for the long-suffering people of Syria to build a better future for their proud country. It's also a moment of risk and uncertainty, as we all turn to the question of what comes next. The United States will work with our partners and the stakeholders in Syria to help them seize an opportunity to manage the risks," he added. Biden said the US does not currently know Assad's location but said he "should be held accountable" for crimes that took place while he was in power. Russia's state news agency TASS said Assad and his family arrived in Moscow, where they have been granted political asylum. After a period of relative calm, clashes between Assad regime forces and anti-regime groups reignited on Nov. 27 in rural areas west of Aleppo, a major city in northern Syria. Over 10 days, opposition forces launched a lightning offensive, capturing key cities and then, on Sunday, the capital, Damascus. The rapid advance, supported by defecting military units, led to the collapse of the Assad regime after 13 years of civil war. Assad and his family had ruled Syria since 1971, and Biden said the US will now "engage with all Syrian groups, including within the process led by the United Nations, to establish a transition away from the Assad regime toward" an independent Syria "with a new constitution, a new government that serves all Syrians." "This process will be determined by the Syrian people themselves. The United States will do whatever we can to support them, including through humanitarian relief, to help restore Syria after more than a decade of war and generations of brutality by the Assad family," he said. "We will remain vigilant. Make no mistake: some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses. We've taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days, and they're saying the right things now, but as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words, but their actions," he added. Biden said the US has carried out dozens of precision airstrikes in Syria targeting what he called "ISIS camps and ISIS operatives."
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Syria’s new reality must be reckoned withCaitlin Clark honored as AP Female Athlete of the Year following her impact on women's sports Caitlin Clark has been named the AP Female Athlete of the Year after raising the profile of women’s basketball to unprecedented levels in both college and the WNBA. She led Iowa to the national championship game, was the top pick in the WNBA draft and captured rookie of the year honors in the league. Fans packed sold-out arenas and millions of television viewers followed her journey on and off the court. Clark's exploits also put other women's sports leagues in the spotlight. A group of 74 sports journalists from AP and its members voted on the award. Other athletes who received votes included Olympic gold medalist Simone Biles and boxer Imane Khelif. Clark’s only the fourth women’s basketball player to win the award since it was first given in 1931. Wemby at The Garden. LeBron vs. Steph. The NBA's Christmas Day lineup, as always, has star power LeBron James made his Christmas debut in 2003. Victor Wembanyama was born 10 days later. That’s right: James has been featured on the NBA’s big day for longer than Wembanyama has been alive. And on Wednesday the league’s oldest player and brightest young star will be big parts of the holiday showcase. It’s another Christmas quintupleheader, with Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs visiting the New York Knicks, Minnesota going to Dallas for a Western Conference finals rematch, Philadelphia heading to Boston to renew a storied rivalry, James and the Los Angeles Lakers taking on Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors, and Denver playing at Phoenix. Pro Picks: Chiefs will beat the Steelers and Ravens will edge the Texans on Christmas Day Playoff berths, draft positioning and more are up for grabs in Week 17. There’s going to be plenty of football on television this holiday week with the NFL playing games on five out of six days, starting with a doubleheader on Christmas Day featuring four of the AFC’s top five teams. Patrick Mahomes and the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs visit Russell Wilson and the Pittsburgh Steelers on Wednesday. Then, two-time NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens take on C.J. Stroud and the Houston Texans. The Bears host the Seahawks on Thursday night and there are three games on Saturday, making Sunday’s schedule light at nine games. Falcons drafting Penix no longer a head-scratcher with rookie QB shining in place of benched Cousins It was the most surprising first-round pick in a long time when the Atlanta Falcons chose Michael Penix Jr. with the eighth overall selection in the NFL draft last April. That came just six weeks after the Falcons had signed free agent quarterback Kirk Cousins to a four-year, $180 million deal with $100 million in guarantees. But that move is no longer a head-scratcher after Penix's solid starting debut in place of a benched and turnover-prone Cousins. Several teams have fared well with new quarterbacks this season including the Steelers, Broncos, Vikings and Commanders. Lindsey Vonn thinks her new titanium knee could start a trend in skiing. And pro sports in general ST. MORITZ, Switzerland (AP) — Lindsey Vonn thinks her new titanium knee could be the start of a trend in ski racing. The 40-year-old American standout had replacement surgery in April and returned to the World Cup circuit after nearly six years last weekend. She says her knee feels “amazing" and that "it’s something to seriously consider for athletes that have a lot of knee problems.” Her surgery was the first of its kind in World Cup skiing. Vonn had a robot-assisted surgery in April with part of the bone in her right knee cut off and replaced by two titanium pieces. She was planning her comeback a month later. Boise State's legacy includes winning coaches and championship moments No. 8 and third-seeded Boise State is preparing for its third trip to the Fiesta Bowl. This time it's in a playoff quarterfinal against No. 5 and sixth-seeded Penn State on New Year’s Eve. Boise State's first appearance on the national stage was in a memorable victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 1, 2007. But former coach Chris Petersen said the victory in that bowl three years later over TCU was even more meaningful for the program. Players have mixed feelings about being on the road on Christmas as NFL adds more holiday games OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Games on Christmas aren’t new to the NFL. The Miami Dolphins famously beat the Kansas City Chiefs in a playoff game on Dec. 25, 1971 — a double-overtime classic that still holds the record for the NFL’s longest game. In 2020, New Orleans running back Alvin Kamara tied an NFL record with six touchdowns in a game when the Saints beat Minnesota on Christmas. Lately the league has been much more aggressive about scheduling games on Christmas. That's been met with mixed feelings among the players. Baltimore tackle Ronnie Stanley says there is an offensive line Christmas party planned for Friday at center Tyler Linderbaum’s house. Quarterback Lamar Jackson’s plan is to celebrate on Thursday. Embiid ejected after drawing 2 technicals in game against Wembanyama and Spurs PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid was ejected in the first half of Monday night’s game against San Antonio after drawing two technical fouls. Referee Jenna Schroeder ejected Embiid with 2 minutes, 59 seconds left in the second quarter. The seven-time All-Star received the first technical for arguing with Schroeder, and received another technical — and ejection — from Schroeder before any more game time elapsed. Embiid was close to Schroeder, but it wasn’t clear from replays whether he made contact with the official. An enraged Embiid charged toward the officials after the ejection and was restrained by teammate Kyle Lowry, head coach Nick Nurse and several assistants. Nikki Glaser uses Prime Video's NFL postgame show appearances to help prepare for Golden Globes INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Nikki Glaser has become a familiar face to football fans this season. Her breakthrough performance at the Tom Brady Roast on May 5 paved the way for five appearances on Amazon Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” postgame show. Glaser said before last Thursday’s game between the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers that doing her “Late Hits” segment was a no-brainer following her success at the Brady roast. Leaving Thunder, Bucks off the NBA's Christmas game list has those teams feeling snubbed Oklahoma City leads the Western Conference and has a MVP candidate in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Milwaukee has the NBA’s leading scorer in Giannis Antetokounmpo. They were the teams that made their way to the NBA Cup final. By any measure, they’re both very good teams. And neither will play on Christmas Day this year. Bah, humbug. The NBA faces the same challenge every summer, figuring out which 10 teams will get the honor of playing on Christmas Day. But the Bucks and Thunder are right to feel snubbed.You can own the definitive physical edition of the original Watchmen comic at its lowest price ever this Cyber Monday
Adam McKay warns 'radical' Wicked could be banned by politicians in '3 to 5 years'NEW YORK , Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Paramount Global (the "Company") (NASDAQ: PARA, PARAA) today announced that it would redeem all of its remaining outstanding 4.750% senior notes due May 15, 2025 (the "4.750% senior notes") on December 27, 2024 . The redemption price for the 4.750% senior notes is equal to the sum of 100% of the principal amount of the 4.750% senior notes that remain outstanding, the make-whole amount calculated in accordance with the terms of the 4.750% senior notes and the related indenture under which the 4.750% senior notes were issued, and the accrued and unpaid interest on the remaining 4.750% senior notes up to, but excluding, the redemption date of December 27, 2024 . The aggregate principal amount of the 4.750% senior notes outstanding and the aggregate principal amount of the 4.750% senior notes to be redeemed is as set forth below: Holders owning 4.750% senior notes through a broker, bank, or other nominee should contact that party for information. For more information, holders of the 4.750% senior notes may call the paying agent for the redemption of the 4.750% senior notes, Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas at (800) 735-7777. About Paramount Paramount Global (NASDAQ: PARA, PARAA) is a leading global media, streaming and entertainment company that creates premium content and experiences for audiences worldwide. Driven by iconic consumer brands, its portfolio includes CBS, Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon, MTV, Comedy Central, BET, Paramount+ and Pluto TV. The Company holds one of the industry's most extensive libraries of TV and film titles. In addition to offering innovative streaming services and digital video products, the Company provides powerful capabilities in production, distribution, and advertising solutions. Cautionary Note Concerning Forward-Looking Statements This communication contains both historical and forward-looking statements, including statements related to our future results, performance and achievements. All statements that are not statements of historical fact are, or may be deemed to be, forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Similarly, statements that describe our objectives, plans or goals are or may be forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements reflect our current expectations concerning future results and events; generally can be identified by the use of statements that include phrases such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "foresee," "likely," "will," "may," "could," "estimate" or other similar words or phrases; and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that are difficult to predict and which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. These risks, uncertainties and other factors include, among others: risks related to our streaming business; the adverse impact on our advertising revenues as a result of advertising market conditions, changes in consumer viewership and deficiencies in audience measurement; risks related to operating in highly competitive and dynamic industries, including cost increases; the unpredictable nature of consumer behavior, as well as evolving technologies and distribution models; risks related to our ongoing changes in business strategy, including investments in new businesses, products, services, technologies and other strategic activities; the potential for loss of carriage or other reduction in or the impact of negotiations for the distribution of our content; damage to our reputation or brands; losses due to asset impairment charges for goodwill, intangible assets, FCC licenses and content; liabilities related to discontinued operations and former businesses; risks related to environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters; evolving business continuity, cybersecurity, privacy and data protection and similar risks; content infringement; domestic and global political, economic and regulatory factors affecting our businesses generally; disruptions to our operations as a result of labor disputes; the inability to hire or retain key employees or secure creative talent; volatility in the prices of the Companyʼs common stock; potential conflicts of interest arising from our ownership structure with a controlling stockholder; business uncertainties, including the effect of the Skydance transactions on the Companyʼs employees, commercial partners, clients and customers, and contractual restrictions while the Skydance transactions are pending; prevention, delay or reduction of the anticipated benefits of the Skydance transactions as a result of the conditions to closing the Skydance transactions; the Transaction Agreementʼs limitation on our ability to pursue alternatives to the Skydance transactions; risks related to a failure to complete the Skydance transactions, including payment of a termination fee and negative reactions from the financial markets and from our employees, commercial partners, clients and customers; risks related to change in control or other provisions in certain agreements that may be triggered by the Skydance transactions; litigation relating to the Skydance transactions potentially preventing or delaying the closing of the Skydance transactions and/or resulting in payment of damages; challenges realizing synergies and other anticipated benefits expected from the Skydance transactions, including integrating the Companyʼs and Skydanceʼs businesses successfully; potential unforeseen direct and indirect costs as a result of the Skydance transactions; any negative effects of the announcement, pendency or consummation of the Skydance transactions on the market price of the Companyʼs common stock and New Paramount Class B Common Stock; and other factors described in our news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and reports on Form 10-Q and Form 8-K. There may be additional risks, uncertainties and factors that we do not currently view as material or that are not necessarily known. The forward-looking statements included in this communication are made only as of the date of this communication, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances. PARA-IR View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/paramount-global-announces-redemption-of-its-4-750-senior-notes-due-may-2025--302334251.html SOURCE Paramount GlobalNone
AP Sports SummaryBrief at 6:49 p.m. ESTTottenham’s season has been a mix of highs and lows, with standout victories over Manchester City, Aston Villa, and Manchester United showcasing their potential. However, inconsistencies remain a concern, highlighted by unexpected setbacks against Ipswich Town and a frustrating draw with 10-man Fulham. Despite recent scrutiny over Ange Postecoglou ’s approach, football pundit Richard Keys has stepped in to applaud the Australian manager, calling for time and unwavering support to build on his promising start. Tottenham find themselves in seventh place in the Premier League, a mere three points off the top four. Under Ange Postecoglou, the team has adopted an exciting attacking philosophy that has energised the fans, though consistency remains a pressing issue. Addressing the situation, presenter Richard Keys has called on chairman Daniel Levy and the fanbase to back the manager, highlighting the refreshing brand of football Postecoglou has introduced to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The redeemed journalist believes the Australian is the right fit for Tottenham Richard Keys believes Tottenham fans need to show more patience with Ange Postecoglou, praising the excitement his team brings to the game. He highlighted Spurs and Brentford as the most thrilling teams to watch, aligning with Postecoglou’s vision for attacking football discussed in his recent press conferences. Unlike former managers Antonio Conte and José Mourinho, who favoured defensive setups, Postecoglou’s approach represents a refreshing change in direction for the club. Tottenham have endured a challenging few years, often competing in Europe and occasionally near the top of the Premier League, but their quest for a trophy remains on the hunt. The constant managerial changes have hindered progress, and a period of stability could be the key to reigniting success at the club. Consistency, both in leadership and performance, might be the missing ingredient Tottenham needs to return to winning ways. The esteemed journo writing in his daily blog , explained “Spurs fans have got to cut big Ange a bit of slack. I love watching his team play. Right now Spurs and Brentford are the teams to follow if you want the sort of excitement that Postecoglou talked about in his press conferences last week.” “Would Spurs fans prefer Mourinho? I’m an admirer, but they weren’t. Would they prefer to have Conte back? Nunes? No. Of course not. My advice is give Postecoglou time and support. He’s the best chance I’ve seen of someone producing ‘push and run’ football at Spurs again – and maybe, just maybe he’ll win a trophy to go with it.” Postecoglou doesn’t seem to be under immediate pressure, with Tottenham still in contention for a top-four finish, but Spurs fans are eager to see their team lift a trophy soon. Given the ongoing injury crisis, it’s hard to hold Postecoglou accountable for the club’s struggles, and he remains in the clear for now. This article first appeared on To The Lane And Back and was syndicated with permission.
Rosen Law Firm Announces Investigation of Breaches of Fiduciary Duties by the Directors and Officers of Southwest Airlines Co. - LUV
The Toronto Maple Leafs are confident they have a clear understanding of Auston Matthews' current condition and what's to come in the near future. In the first season of a 4-year contract that made him the most expensive player in the NHL, 2024-25 hasn't gone as planned for the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Not only did Auston Matthews start off very slow on the offensive side of the puck, but he has been dealing with an upper-body injury since the pre-season that has caused some serious concern. Matthews ended up missing 9 games in November with a mysterious injury that went from day-to-day to week-to-week, and then to him making a trip to Germany to see a specialist. He came back and played in 12 more games before re-aggravating the same injury . As we enter the Christmas break, the extra days off should be a boon for the captain. However, his return to game action after the break is still deemed questionable. However, it's not all doom and gloom, as Sportsnet's Chris Johnston took to First Up on TSN 1050 and gave us an update on how the Maple Leafs are seeing things and their confidence level in his return to action. While it might be a mystery to the media and the fans, it sounds like the Maple Leafs have a great understanding of the situation at hand behind closed doors. However, there might be a power struggle beginning to loom between player and team. Elliotte Friedman made an interesting note on the situation yesterday and believes that Matthews wants to play through it, but the organization is hesitant at the moment. He believes that Matthews wants to not only be out there on the ice for himself, but, more importantly, as the captain and setting an example for the rest of the team. Friedman also alluded to the 4 Nations Face-Off, which will ultimately have some sway in the decision-making process. The health of Matthews is of the utmost importance, especially with how injury ravaged the team, dating back to last year's playoff matchup against Boston. It will be interesting to see how things play out, but we will have to wait until at least the 27th of December when they return to the ice and face off against the Detroit Red Wings. This article first appeared on Maple Leafs Daily and was syndicated with permission.North Korean nationals indicted in scheme using IT workers to funnel money for weapons programs
Ralph-Beyer puts up 20, Sacred Heart defeats Manhattanville 100-60Little shop of Manitoba keepsakes
Whitmer reappoints 2 trustees to Western Michigan University’s boardSteelers WR George Pickens returns to practice, hopeful to play against Chiefs
All-star Vancouver Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko will make his first start of the season Tuesday. Head coach Rick Tocchet confirmed after morning skate that Demko will be in net when the Canucks host the St. Louis Blues. The 28-year-old netminder from San Diego, Calif., last played on April 24 when the Canucks bested the Nashville Predators in Game 1 of a first-round playoff series. He suffered an injury to the popliteus muscle in his knee during the game and has been working his way back ever since. A number of factors led to Demko starting Tuesday, Tocchet said. “You want him to feel comfortable. You want to, obviously, communicate with him,” he said. “(Kevin Lankinen) was playing well, too. So there wasn’t a pressing issue to get him in. But we want to get him in. We’re excited. Obviously he’s a huge part of our team.” Demko had a 35-14-2 record with a .918 save percentage, a 2.45 goals-against average and five shutouts in regular-season play last year and played in the all-star game for the second time in his career. The veteran goalie is managing his personal expectations as he returns to game action, however. “I think it’d be foolish to say that I’m going to come back and be perfectly sharp and feel like I have my ‘A’ game in game one. Obviously, that takes a little bit of time,” Demko told reporters last week. “Just seeing game reps and things is kind of a last step of fully doing rehab. So I’m not really putting an expectation on that. “Obviously, the way Lanks has played kind of takes a little bit of pressure off of myself to come in and not feel like I have to save the world.” Demko returned to Vancouver’s lineup last week, backing up Lankinen for games against the Columbus Blue Jackets and Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canucks signed Lankinen to a US$875,000 deal during training camp and the Finnish goaltender has split the crease with Arturs Silovs this season, backstopping Vancouver to a 14-8-4 record. Lankinen has been “unbelievable” this season, Demko said. “It’s been really fun to get to know him and be able to watch him play,” he said. “It’s a challenging position he was put in, coming into a new team and being able to manage the workload that he’s been given.” Demko’s return to the crease should act as motivation for the Canucks’ skaters as the team takes on the Blues, Tocchet said. “I think, when you look at the way Demmer has worked hard to get back, a lot of lonely times by himself, it should give guys juice that you want to play well in front of him,” the coach said. You’d be crazy not to. “Maybe there’s extra shot blocking, situations to get the puck in deep when we’re tired to give him a break, things like that. I think we need to do that tonight for him.”World News | 3 Fall into Ocean After California Wharf Partially Collapses Due to Heavy Surf from Major Storm
BYD on course to top 2024 sales target of 4M, outpace Ford, HondaThe U.S. House of Representatives will decide Jan. 3 whether to re-elect Speaker Mike Johnson to the top GOP job after he faced a contentious vote to avert a government shutdown at the last-minute last week, leaving some Republicans skeptical of his prospects heading into the vote. All of Minnesota’s four Republican members of Congress say they plan to back Johnson, including Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip and No. 3 Republican in the House, who came close to becoming speaker before Johnson clinched the role last year. “Whip Emmer supports Speaker Johnson and is focused on doing the job he was elected to do,” a spokesperson for Emmer said when asked if he plans to support Johnson and if he would be interested in running for the role himself if Johnson loses support. President-elect Donald Trump and his allies sent Johnson scrambling last week to put together a new plan to avoid a government shutdown after he had worked with Democrats on an initial agreement with bipartisan support. In that chaos, some Republicans reportedly said Emmer and other lawmakers were being floated as possible contenders for speaker. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said over the weekend that Johnson is at risk of losing his speakership post and that there will be “no Democrats available to save him” on Jan. 3, following the speaker’s decision to move away from the bipartisan bill. DFL Reps. Ilhan Omar and Angie Craig have said they plan to back Jeffries for speaker instead. With a slim 219-215 GOP majority, Johnson can only risk losing one Republican vote to get re-elected to the role with a majority of 218 votes if all Democrats vote against him. So far, at least one Republican lawmaker, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has said he will not back Johnson and other Republicans have indicated they are still undecided. “I believe Johnson will prevail — but not without making promises that won’t be able to be kept,” outgoing DFL Rep. Dean Phillips, who is leaving his seat Jan. 2 and will not be voting, said in a text. “Tom Emmer is broadly respected among a diverse array of his conference, and I foresee a race between him and [House Majority Leader] Steve Scalise should Mike Johnson find himself unable to secure 218 votes,” Phillips continued. Emmer emerged as contender for speaker last year after a group of Republicans ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. However, Emmer eventually dropped out of the race after Trump and his allies spoke out against his bid on social media But Emmer and Trump have since grown close. Emmer secured a prime time spot defending the president-elect during the Republican National Convention, and he spent election night with Trump in Florida. Though Trump is now close to Emmer, the president-elect has also previously said he’s with Johnson “all the way .” Prior to the government shutdown dispute last week, Republicans had appeared unified after Trump’s victory in the Nov. 5 election. Johnson, Scalise and Emmer were all easily re-elected to their jobs during the November leadership elections.
MITCHELL — With three road games in five days, the Mitchell High School boys basketball program tipped off a new campaign in a flurry last week. All three games — at Watertown, Rapid City Stevens and Rapid City Central — resulted in Mitchell victories, as the Kernels ran their win streak to 20 consecutive games. ADVERTISEMENT Here are three observations from Mitchell’s opening week of play: Starting quality was not among the questions facing Mitchell to start the season. The Kernels returned four starters — Colton Smith, Markus Talley, Landen Soulek and Gavin Hinker — from last season’s championship team. This season’s fifth starter, Sutton Thompson, was a regular member of the 2023-24 rotation off the bench. Senior Mason Herman, who provided valuable minutes in last season’s state tournament as Hinker battled foul trouble, should fulfill a similar role this season. One loss from last year’s rotation the Kernels didn’t count on was senior Parker Mandel, who is out with a knee injury to start the season. According to MHS head coach Ryker Kreutzfeldt, Mandel is set to undergo a procedure on his knee, and a timetable for his potential return is unclear at this time. “We don't really know after that,” Kreutzfeldt said of Mandel’s status. Filling out the rest of the Mitchell rotation is promising talent but with considerably less varsity experience, and finding a key contributor from that collection of up-and-comers takes on added significance in Mandel’s absence. “It’s something we’ve talked to the guys about. We need to have some extra guys who can help us — not just be a part of it, but be a contributor,” Kreutzfeldt explained. “That's going to be a good crew, and I think they're going to be really good complementary players to the guys we have this year.” ADVERTISEMENT Early on, 6-foot-4 sophomore guard/forward Collin Weier has been a top choice off the bench. He snagged five rebounds and even scored Mitchell’s first field goal of the season in the opener at Watertown. The rotation has also included 6-foot-1 sophomore guard Owen Raml and 6-foot junior guard Kendan Skinner through three games. “They came in, and it didn't look like this was their first varsity basketball game,” Colton Smith said after the Game 1 win in Watertown. “The depth was better than I thought,” Kreutzfeldt added. “Everybody who got in did a great job.” One area where Kreutzfeldt expected the Kernels to hit the ground running was on defense, and that’s largely held up. Much like it did a season ago, Mitchell’s effort on the defensive end of the floor has helped ease some early offensive hiccups. Mitchell opened the season by holding Watertown to 26 points through three quarters, at which point the game was well out of reach. ADVERTISEMENT “Our first quarter (against Watertown), you could tell we came out slow, but we definitely were more settled on the defensive end,” Smith said. “I think defense is going to be our strong suit this year, and we showed that in those first three quarters.” It hasn’t been perfect — during the West River trip, Kreutzfeldt expressed a level of initial disappointment with how the Kernels were handling some of the dribble penetration by Stevens’ Dayler Segrist and Central’s Gilbert White Jr. — but on the whole, Mitchell has been effective at keeping points off the scoreboard. Through three games, opponents have managed 47.7 points per contest against the Kernels. That ranks third in Class AA, trailing the only other 3-0 teams in the class to date — Sioux Falls Lincoln and Spearfish. Last season, Mitchell allowed 49.2 points per game for the season, which ranked fourth in Class AA. Some of Mitchell’s early success has come with finding a comfortability in switching between man-to-man and zone defenses. This proved to be particularly effective against Stevens. “We left it up to our guys. In every timeout, we asked what they wanted to do (defensively), and they felt confident in the zone,” Kreutzfeldt said after the win over Stevens. “It was about the only thing we felt confident in the whole game, but it came through for us.” Though it should come as no surprise, senior guard Markus Talley appears to be in mid-season form from the jump. ADVERTISEMENT The Augustana men’s basketball signee has at least 26 points in all three games, pouring in the points at an efficient clip nearing 58% from the field and upward of 54% from 3-point range. In the opener at Watertown, Talley was able to beat his defender off the dribble and get to the basket almost at will. He finished 12 of 16 from the field and dished out six assists. Against Stevens, Kreutzfeldt said that Talley “had to put us on his back,” and later called him “the best player in the class.” Talley scored 26 of the Kernels’ 55 points, including the last five in a three-point victory. Most recently at Central, Mitchell had an uncharacteristically tough time getting anything going inside, so Talley hit six 3-pointers as part of a 28-point effort to keep the offense afloat. Fellow all-state performer Colton Smith came alive in the second half against the Cobblers, scoring 19 points after halftime alone. Even with the exceptional start, Kreutzfeldt believes Talley could provide more going forward. One thing is certain: his early contributions have been invaluable while the Kernels get up to speed around him. “Markus was great, but even by his standards, maybe it wasn’t his best game,” Kreutzfeldt said after the win over Central. “That’s just how much ability he has.”
CINCINNATI — Saturday’s wild overtime win over the Denver Broncos was the most important in what has been a mostly disappointing season for the Cincinnati Bengals. Not only did the Bengals (8-8) win their fourth straight for the first time this season and keep their slim playoff hopes alive, but they also finally made enough plays late to win a close game. Seven of their previous eight losses were by one score. And Cincinnati also got a win over one of the league’s better teams. Its seven previous victories came against sub-.500 teams. Joe Burrow, in the midst of the best season of his career, threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins with 1 minute, 7 seconds left in overtime to win it 30-24. The final drive followed two critical stops by the Cincinnati defense. “We’ve known we had a good football team all along,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “And those (close) games are disappointing that we came up short, but they didn’t change our process. They didn’t change what our guys believed in. We didn’t have to change everything we did. We still believed in what we were doing. And now we’ve won four in a row, and we have to make it five in a row.” The playoffs are still a long shot. To get there, the Bengals will have to go into Pittsburgh and beat the Steelers next weekend in the regular-season finale and also count on other bubble teams losing. What’s working The Bengals are playing their best football of the season. Burrow, battered by the Denver pass rush, completed nearly 80% of his passes in piling up 412 yards and three touchdowns. It marked his eighth straight game with at least 250 yards and three touchdown passes, extending his NFL record. ... Receiver Ja’Marr Chase, who had nine catches for 102 yards against the Broncos, could finish the season with the receiving triple crown — most catches, yards and touchdowns. What needs help The offensive line continues to struggle, even with the return of starting left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. Burrow rarely had a clean pocket, was constantly on the run and was sacked seven times and hit 15 times. Stock up The Cincinnati defense, much maligned this season, forced two Denver punts in overtime. The second one led to the Bengals’ winning drive. Linebacker Germaine Pratt intercepted Bo Nix to end a Denver drive in the fourth quarter. “For them to rise up and get those two stops and allow the offense a shot to go win it (is) big-time stuff,” Taylor said. Higgins caught 11 passes for 131 yards and was the recipient of all three of Burrow’s touchdown passes. “Everybody can see what kind of player he is,” Burrow said of Higgins, who is playing this season with the franchise tag. “He elevates us to a different level when he’s playing like that.” Stock down Kicker Cade York, who was signed in early December to fill in for the injured Evan McPherson, had a chance to win the game with 2:49 left in overtime, but his 33-yard field-goal attempt bounced off the left upright. Injuries RB Chase Brown sprained his ankle in an awkward slide as the Bengals tried to run out the clock in regulation. ... OT Amarius Mims suffered an injury to his right hand. Key number 499 — total yards by the Bengals against Denver.GREENSBORO, N.C. — A police officer responding to a report of a man with a gun inside a North Carolina supermarket was fatally shot Monday and a suspect was later taken into custody, authorities said. Police announced the death of Greensboro police officer Michael Horan at a news conference, saying Horan was responding to the report when he was shot shortly before midday at a Food Lion store in Greensboro in the central part of the state. Ramona Miller told WGHP-TV she was shopping with her 6-year-old granddaughter when she heard shots being fired. “We were on our way out and I was purchasing a lottery ticket and I was just sitting there and heard a ‘pop-pop’ and then ‘pop-pop-pop.’ I think I heard five shots,” Miller said. “At first I didn’t know it was a shooting ... but an employee yelled out, ‘Shooting! Shooting!’” Miller said she and her granddaughter left the store and that police arrived soon afterward. Authorities said Monday afternoon that the circumstances of the shooting remain under investigation and they did not immediately release further details about how it unfolded. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the state’s lead law enforcement agency, is continuing the investigation. Horan was hired in 2017 and became a sworn Greensboro Police Department officer in early 2018, Assistant Police Chief Milford J. Harris said. Horan served in the department’s patrol bureau. He also was a U.S. Coast Guard member since 2000, according to his LinkedIn profile. “He was an excellent officer. He had an outstanding reputation inside the department and in the community,” Harris said at the news conference. Gov. Roy Cooper said he was monitoring the day’s developments. Cooper said on the social media platform X that his office had sent a “significant” number of state law enforcement officers to aid the emergency response in Greensboro. A heavy police presence was spotted outside the grocery store in Greensboro. The store will remain closed while authorities continue their investigation, Food Lion said in a statement, adding it was providing resources to its affected workers. It directed all questions to local law enforcement and said it was cooperating with the investigation. The shooting was another reminder that state lawmakers should strengthen resources and improve safety for law enforcement officers, said Democratic state Sen. Michael Garrett, who represents part of Guilford County where Greensboro is located. “During what should be a time of joy and celebration, another brave officer has been shot in the line of duty. Another family’s holiday season forever changed,” Garrett said in a Facebook statement.
A healthful and shelf-staple plant food — they last for years when dried — beans have been among a home cook’s most reliable pantry items for a very long time.
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1. Not pretty, but pretty effective Now we know. Norwich and Johannes Hoff Thorup can do pragmatism as well as possession. This was a raw-boned game of Championship cut and thrust. Thorup himself called the fayre 'terrible'. Low on quality but rich in endeavour and character and fighting spirit from the Canaries. Commodities that were brought into question by the limpness of that 3-0 weekend defeat at QPR and the defensive vulnerability exposed at set pieces. At times this had the feel of a cup tie, with the ball a bystander. When Callum Doyle sensed the danger at his back post, in the first of six additional minutes, heading behind as the blue shirts sensed a big opportunity, he punched the air with all the lustre that greeted his thumping goal against Watford earlier in the season. It was a night for righting a few wrongs. Even the normally ice-cool Thorup cut an animated figure in the tight confines of the two dugouts, particularly in a heated exchange or two in the first half with the fourth official. Norwich can and will play much better this season. But they might struggle to derive as much satisfaction from the manner they ground out a point at a raucous, febrile Fratton Park. Particularly given the fresh blast of adversity that hit them prior to kick-off. 2. ‘Fair or not fair’ Glen Riddersholm did not explicitly reference the FA’s decision to hit Kenny McLean with another four-game ban for violent conduct for an alleged incident not recorded, so presumably not seen, by the officials at QPR. But the timing of his social media post, which came between official confirmation of the news and kick-off at Fratton Park said it all. McLean cut a crestfallen figure as he trooped off the team bus. There was a consoling hug from Thorup as they got a first sight of the pitch. Incredibly, the Scottish international will have missed eight games by the turn of the year. Irony of ironies, the first game he is available again will be QPR’s spicy Carrow Road return. City’s appeal was rejected out of hand on Tuesday afternoon. The brief time it took to be dismissed would only add to that ‘frustration’, which Riddersholm urged those inside and outside the club to use as ‘fuel’. It would seem, on face value, grossly unfair for the Scot to suffer a three-game ban, and the further one game uplift related to his previous red card misdemeanour against Middlesbrough, for an alleged altercation with a QPR midfielder midway through the opening period that ‘wasn’t seen by the match officials at the time, but it was caught on camera’. Thorup made it clear in his first public post-match utterances on the matter he expects a raft of retrospective calls to come now in the Championship with precedent set. Given the Ante Crnac offside call, the clear penalty for handball and the foul on Angus Gunn in the build up to QPR’s second goal, the football authorities appear to have meted out rough justice. While other actors escape any such forensic scrutiny of their performance. Although it may be worth checking where the QPR match officials find themselves posted this coming weekend. But if Riddersholm’s clarion call is heeded, and that sense of unfairness lingers, there might be one positive to grasp. 3. Solid citizens In the midst of Thorup’s takedown of his players struggles at QPR this always felt like a night to restore Jose Cordoba to the first XI. Hamstring issues have hindered the Panamanian centre back, but his sheer size and presence looked like invaluable elements for another arm wrestle of a Championship contest. Cordoba slotted in alongside Shane Duffy, who similarly possesses the physical attributes to handle the earthier dimension of combat in the second tier. There was a dramatic decrease in the ball-playing requirements of the two Norwich centre backs at Fratton Park and a marked reduction in the slip passing involving Angus Gunn that had previously been the hallmark of Thorup’s deep build up play structure. This was a night to head it, kick it and deal with the Pompey barrage from set pieces. Neither was found wanting, although Duffy’s rashness earned him a needless first half booking in a flurry of yellow cards, as City strived to prove collectively they can mix it as well as manoeuvre opponents off-balance with the sureness of their possession. On this wintry night, and after the events at Loftus Road, Duffy and Cordoba were the perfect pairing. Duffy has shown enough already this season he has an understated passing range, go back to the third goal against Luton last time out at Carrow Road, while Cordoba looks equally comfortable on the ball. Rather than horses for courses, and needs must, the duo may have put down a marker for a more lasting union. 4. Over to you, Lunghi Without second guessing Thorup, his compatriot may have been the main beneficiary to the late, McLean-enforced switch to the City starting line up on the south-coast. A fair assumption given Jacob Sorensen had been dipped out since that comprehensive Plymouth win, minus his initial passing error that led to the Pilgrims’ solitary goal on the night, and the return to fitness of Marcelino Nunez. But with McLean now missing until the turn of the year, the 26-year-old looks the nearest carbon copy. In truth, he has never exhibited the dynamism and drive or the sheer athletic output of McLean during a City career which has, for the most part, hovered around the margins. He will not command the same contractual headlines as Gunn or Grant Hanley, or even Ashley Barnes, but Sorensen is another approaching the final months of his current deal. Albeit the Canaries retain a further year option. But to trigger that extension Sorensen may feel this is now his time to press his case. He was pitched into deep water, when McLean was previously suspended and injuries bit hard for those tough defeats to Cardiff, Sheffield Wednesday and Bristol City. That felt harsh to judge a player who had been sidelined for so long and was then thrust into emergency action. But he has had match minutes and training weeks since to come to the boil. Norwich will need Sorensen’s composure and his ability to read the game, allied to a layer of protection for the Canaries’ back four. Not only does his team need him, but he needs to deliver.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) — Josh Allen threw two touchdown passes and ran for another score, and the Buffalo Bills clinched the AFC’s No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the unraveling and undisciplined New York Jets on Sunday. The Bills put the game away by capitalizing on two Jets turnovers and scoring three touchdowns over a 5:01 span in the closing minutes of the third quarter. Buffalo’s defense forced three takeaways overall and sacked Aaron Rodgers four times, including a 2-yard loss for a safety in the second quarter. Allen had a short and efficient outing, finishing 16 of 27 for 182 yards with a 30-yard TD pass to Amari Cooper and a 14-yarder to Keon Coleman before giving way to backup Mitchell Trubisky with Buffalo leading 33-0 through three quarters. And Trubisky piled on by completing a 69-yard touchdown pass to practice squad call-up Tyrell Shavers 2:23 into the fourth quarter. Allen’s two-TD passing outing was the 64th of his career to match Peyton Manning for the third most in a player’s first seven NFL seasons. Patrick Mahomes holds the record with 67 two-TD outings in that span, followed by Dan Marino’s 65. Allen also became the NFL’s first player with five consecutive 40-TD seasons, while his 1-yard score was the 65th rushing TD of his career, matching the team record held by Thurman Thomas. The five-time defending AFC East champion Bills improved to 13-3 to match a franchise single-season record, and will open the playoffs hosting the conference’s seventh-seeded team in two weeks. The outing was a meltdown for Rodgers and the Jets (4-12), who will finish with five or fewer wins for the seventh time over a 14-season playoff drought — the NFL’s longest active streak. Rodgers, who entered the game with 499 career TD passes and looking to become just the fifth player to reach 500, instead was shut out and replaced by Tyrod Taylor with 12:37 remaining. Discipline was an issue for a Jets team that fell to 2-9 since Jeff Ulbrich took over as interim coach. New York finished with 16 accepted penalties for 120 yards. Taylor accounted for New York’s only points with a 9-yard TD pass to Garrett Wilson and a 20-yarder to Tyler Conklin in a game played in blustery, unseasonably warm conditions, with temperatures in the mid-50s Farenheit (10 Celsius) and winds gusting up to 35 mph (56 kmph). Rodgers finished 12 of 18 for 112 yards with two interceptions after entering the game having thrown only one in his past eight outings. He was also sacked four times, pushing his career total to 568, moving ahead of Tom Brady (565) and into first place on the NFL list. The outing became a comedy of errors for the Jets. Trailing 7-0 after Allen’s 1-yard run, New York’s three possession of the first half ended with turning the ball over on downs Buffalo’s 24; Rodgers being intercepted at his own 17 by defensive tackle Jordan Phillips ; and being sacked for a safety by A.J. Epenesa. The bottom fell out to close the third quarter when Rodgers’ being intercepted by Christian Benford led to Cooper’s leaping TD grab put Buffalo up 19-0. James Cook scored on a 1-yard run on Buffalo’s next possession with 1:15 left, and Coleman’s touchdown with 12 seconds left in the third was set up after Wilson lost a fumble. The Bills finished their third season with a perfect record, and first since 1990, by going 8-0 at home. They've won 11 straight regular-season home games dating to last season since dropping a 24-22 decision to Denver on Nov. 13. Jets CB Sauce Gardner aggravated a hamstring injury in the first half and was ruled out in the third quarter. Jets: Close the season hosting the Miami Dolphins. Bills: Play their regular-season finale at the New England Patriots. AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Zelenskyy slams Slovakia's PM Robert Fico following a controversial visit to meet Putin in MoscowJohn Elway: remorse over bypassing Josh Allen in draft mitigated by watching Broncos rookie Bo NixParents Cause Distractions by Monitoring Student Laptops in Class
GIRLS Thursday, Dec. 12 Pittsburg at Frankston Tourn., TBA N. Diana at Eustace Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA Friday, Dec. 13 Rockwall at Longview, 6:30 p.m. Henderson at P. Tree, 6:30 p.m. Cumberland at S. Hill, 6:30 p.m. Hallsville at Jacksonville, 6:30 p.m. T. High at Marshall, 7:30 p.m. Gilmer at Kilgore, 6:30 p.m. C. Hill at Carthage, 6:30 p.m. W. Oak at Tatum, 6:15 p.m. Sabine at Troup, 6:15 p.m. Arp at W. Rusk, 6:30 p.m. Harleton at O. City, 6:15 p.m. B. Sandy at L-Kildare, 6:15 p.m. Overton at Cushing, 5:30 p.m. N. Summerfield at Carlisle, 5 p.m. Pittsburg at Frankston Tourn., TBA N. Diana at Eustace Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA Saturday, Dec. 14 Avinger at MCA, noon Pittsburg at Frankston Tourn., TBA N. Diana at Eustace Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA BOYS Thursday, Dec. 12 MCA at Longview, 6:30 p.m. Tatum at C. Heights Tourn., TBA W. Rusk at Gary Tourn., TBA E. Fields at Gary Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA W. Oak at Overton Tourn., TBA Overton at Overton Tourn., TBA U. Grove at Overton Tourn., TBA Carlisle at B. Hill Tourn., TBA Hawkins at M. Mill Tourn., TBA O. City at H. Bluff Tourn., TBA Friday, Dec. 13 Hallsville at Jacksonville, 7:30 p.m. T. High at Marshall, 7:30 p.m. Henderson at Arp, 6:15 p.m. Sabine Alumni Game, 6:30 p.m. Tatum at C. Heights Tourn., TBA W. Rusk at Gary Tourn.., TBA E. Fields at Gary Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA W. Oak at Overton Tourn., TBA Overton at Overton Tourn., TBA U. Grove at Overton Tourn., TBA Carlisle at B. Hill Tourn., TBA Hawkins at M. Mill Tourn., TBA O. City at H. Bluff Tourn., TBA Saturday, Dec. 14 Avinger at MCA, noon Tatum at C. Heights Tourn., TBA W. Rusk at Gary Tourn., TBA E. Fields at Gary Tourn., TBA Beckville at Gary Tourn., TBA W. Oak at Overton Tourn., TBA Overton at Overton Tourn., TBA U. Grove at Overton Tourn., TBA Carlisle at B. Hill Tourn., TBA Hawkins at M. Mill Tourn., TBA O. City at H. Bluff Tourn., TBA COLLEGE WOMEN Friday, Dec. 13 Arlington Baptist at LETU, 6 p.m. MEN Saturday, Dec. 14 Blinn at Kilgore, 4 p.m. TVCC at Panola, 4 p.m.New Marvell AI accelerator (XPU) architecture enables up to 25% more compute, 33% greater memory while improving power efficiency. Marvell collaborating with Micron, Samsung and SK hynix on custom high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solutions to deliver custom XPUs. Architecture comprises advanced die-to-die interfaces, HBM base dies, controller logic and advanced packaging for new XPU designs. SANTA CLARA, Calif. , Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL), a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, today announced that it has pioneered a new custom HBM compute architecture that enables XPUs to achieve greater compute and memory density. The new technology is available to all of its custom silicon customers to improve the performance, efficiency and TCO of their custom XPUs. Marvell is collaborating with its cloud customers and leading HBM manufacturers, Micron, Samsung Electronics, and SK hynix to define and develop custom HBM solutions for next-generation XPUs. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.
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VHP to start pan India drive for liberation of temples from government controlChelsea’s surprise defeat by Fulham meant victory over the Foxes stretched their lead to seven points, with a match in hand, with the halfway point of the campaign fast approaching. But Slot is maintaining his level-headed approach despite the clamour growing around their chances of adding another title to the one won in 2020. Tonight's goalscorers 💪 pic.twitter.com/xn9sfZbVow — Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 26, 2024 “If you are in this game for a long time like the players and I am then 20 games before the end you don’t look at it as there are so many challenges ahead of you,” he said after Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones and Mohamed Salah scored to turn around an early deficit following Jordan Ayew’s strike. “Injuries and and a bit of bad luck can happen to any team, it is far too early to be already celebrating – but it is nice for us to be where we are. “I don’t think there was any easy win for us in any of these games; it could have been an easy win against Tottenham but we conceded two and it was then 5-2 – that tells you how difficult it is to win even when you have all your players available. “That is why we have to take it one game at a time. The league table is something of course we are aware of but we always understand how many games there are to go.” Leicester boss Ruud van Nistelrooy felt his side held their own until Salah scored in the 82nd minute. “I think we were in the contest for a result for a long time,” he said. “Three-one was the turning point in the sense the game was done there to get a result. “I think the 60th minute I remember a chanced for Daka to score the equaliser so we were in the game to get a surprising result. “We did well, we did what we could: a good start with the goal but if you speak of a turning point, 3-1 with Salah, the game was done.” Van Nistelrooy left goalkeeper Danny Ward out of the squad after he struggled in the defeat to Wolves and was jeered by his own fans. “The change in goal was one to make and the conversation with Wardy was impressive, the way he was thinking of the team and the club,” added the Dutchman. “I insisted on a conversation and of course it is a private conversation but what I want to share is the person and the professional he is. “I was impressed with that and his willingness for the team and the club to do well. “Really tough what happened for him. We are professionals but human beings as well, when frustration is being directed towards one person that is difficult.”
Too early to celebrate – Arne Slot keeps leaders Liverpool focusedPHILADELPHIA, PA / ACCESSWIRE / December 10, 2024 / abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund (NYSE:ACP) (the "Fund"), a closed-end fund, announced today that it has reduced its monthly distribution from US 10 cents per share to US 7.75 cents per share, commencing with the distribution payable on January 10, 2025 to shareholders of record as of December 30, 2024 (ex-dividend date December 30, 2024). This represents a change in the annualized distribution rate from 18% to 14% based on NAV as of December 9, 2024. The Fund intends to maintain this distribution level for at least the next 12 months unless there is significant and unforeseen changes in market conditions. The Fund's distribution policy is to provide investors with a stable monthly distribution out of current income, supplemented by realized capital gains and, to the extent necessary, paid-in capital, which is a non-taxable return of capital. The Fund's monthly distribution has remained unchanged since September 2020. The Investment Adviser has advised the Fund's Board of Trustees (the "Board") that it believes that the reduced monthly distribution is more consistent with sustainable earnings of the Fund. The current reduction in distribution takes into account many factors, including, but not limited to, current and expected earnings and abrdn Investments Limited, the Investment Adviser, economic and market outlook. In approving the decrease to the distribution rate, the Board considered, among other things, the strong long-term past performance of the investment advisor as well as their outlook on the market going forward. The investment advisor is optimistic on both the near term and long-term prospects for returns within the High Yield market, with the combination of an attractive level of income and the advisor's historic ability to generate capital appreciation in a range of market outcomes as the drivers of their outlook. However, as credit spreads have tightened over recent years, the Board believes it to be prudent to lower the distribution rate to reflect a decreased total return potential in excess of income over the near term. Both the Board and the Investment Advisor remain committed to offering a product with a premium level of income, and that will not change. The pro forma level of distribution is expected to continue to stand out from the competitive set within the peer group while allowing the advisor the flexibility to invest in assets that put the best interests of the investor base as the top priority. Circular 230 disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the U.S. Treasury, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein. In the United States, abrdn is the marketing name for the following affiliated, registered investment advisers: abrdn Inc., abrdn Investments Limited, and abrdn Asia Limited. Closed-end funds are traded on the secondary market through one of the stock exchanges. The Fund's investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares may be worth more or less than the original cost. Shares of closed-end funds may trade above (a premium) or below (a discount) the NAV of the Fund's portfolio. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Past performance does not guarantee future results. www.abrdnacp.com ### For More Information Contact: abrdn U.S. Closed-End Funds Investor Relations 1-800-522-5465 Investor.Relations@abrdn.com SOURCE: abrdn Income Credit Strategies Fund View the original on accesswire.com
JERUSALEM — A new round of Israeli airstrikes in Yemen on Thursday targeted the Houthi rebel-held capital and multiple ports, while the World Health Organization's director-general said the bombardment occurred nearby as he prepared to board a flight in Sanaa, with a crew member injured. "The air traffic control tower, the departure lounge — just a few meters from where we were — and the runway were damaged," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media. He added that he and U.N. colleagues were safe. "We will need to wait for the damage to the airport to be repaired before we can leave," he said, without mentioning the source of the bombardment. U.N. spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay later said the injured person was with the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service. Israel's army later told The Associated Press it wasn't aware that the WHO chief or delegation were at the location in Yemen. Smoke rises Thursday from the area around the International Airport after an airstrike in Sanaa, Yemen. Osamah Abdulrahman, Associated Press The Israeli strikes followed several days of Houthi launches setting off sirens in Israel. The Israeli military said in a statement it attacked infrastructure used by the Iran-backed Houthis at the international airport in Sanaa and ports in Hodeida, Al-Salif and Ras Qantib, along with power stations, claiming they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Israel's military added it had "capabilities to strike very far from Israel's territory — precisely, powerfully, and repetitively." The strikes, carried out more than 1,000 miles from Jerusalem, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "the Houthis, too, will learn what Hamas and Hezbollah and Assad's regime and others learned" as his military has battled those more powerful proxies of Iran. The Houthi-controlled satellite channel al-Masirah reported multiple deaths and showed broken windows, collapsed ceilings and a bloodstained floor and vehicle. Iran's foreign ministry condemned the strikes. The U.S. military also targeted the Houthis in recent days. The U.N. says the targeted ports are important entryways for humanitarian aid for Yemen, the poorest Arab nation that plunged into a civil war in 2014. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, while other missiles and drones were shot down. Last week, Israeli jets struck Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people, calling it a response to previous Houthi attacks. The Houthis also have been targeting shipping on the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The U.N. Security Council has an emergency meeting Monday in response to an Israeli request that it condemn the Houthi attacks and Iran for supplying them weapons. Relatives and friends mourn over the bodies of five Palestinian journalists Thursday who were killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Abdel Kareem Hana, Associated Press Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed five Palestinian journalists outside a hospital in Gaza overnight, the territory's Health Ministry said. The strike hit a car outside Al-Awda Hospital in the built-up Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza. The journalists worked for local news outlet Al-Quds Today, a television channel affiliated with the Islamic Jihad militant group. Islamic Jihad is a smaller and more extreme ally of Hamas and took part in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack in southern Israel that ignited the war. Israel's military identified four of the men as combat propagandists and said that intelligence, including a list of Islamic Jihad operatives found by soldiers in Gaza, confirmed that all five were affiliated with the group. Associated Press footage showed the incinerated shell of a van, with press markings visible on the back doors. The Committee to Protect Journalists says more than 130 Palestinian reporters have been killed since the start of the war. Israel hasn't allowed foreign reporters to enter Gaza except on military embeds. Israel banned the pan-Arab Al Jazeera network and accuses six of its Gaza reporters of being militants. The Qatar-based broadcaster denies the allegations and accuses Israel of trying to silence its war coverage, which has focused heavily on civilian casualties from Israeli military operations. Mourners cry Thursday while they take the last look at the body of a relative, one of eight Palestinians killed, during their funeral in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. Matias Delacroix, Associated Press Separately, Israel's military said a 35-year-old reserve soldier was killed during fighting in central Gaza. A total of 389 soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation. The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed across the border, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting about 250. About 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, at least a third of whom are believed to be dead. Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 45,000 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry. It says more than half the fatalities are women and children, but doesn't say how many of the dead were fighters. The offensive caused widespread destruction and hunger and drove around 90% of the population of 2.3 million from their homes. Hundreds of thousands are packed into squalid camps along the coast, with little protection from the cold, wet winter. Also Thursday, people mourned eight Palestinians killed by Israeli military operations in and around Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The Israeli military said it opened fire after militants attacked soldiers, and it was aware of uninvolved civilians who were harmed in the raid.
A onetime aide to former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has voluntarily dismissed a federal lawsuit she had filed against him and several of his aides two years ago alleging he sexually harassed her and then smeared her reputation after she became the second woman to publicly accuse him of misconduct. According to statements from Charlotte Bennett and her attorney Debra Katz posted on X on Monday, Bennett will drop the case against Cuomo and top aides Melissa DeRosa, Jill DesRosiers and Judith Mogul, but the suit against the state, her employer at the time, will proceed. “Former Governor Andrew Cuomo can no longer use this lawsuit to harass me and my family. His abusive filings and invasive subpoenas are meant to humiliate and retaliate against me and those who have supported me over the last five years of this living nightmare. Mr. Cuomo’s letter to the Court last week is yet another example of this and I have had enough,” Bennett said in a statement. Debra Katz and Charlotte Bennett issued statements on news that Bennett voluntarily dismissed her lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the SDNY against Andrew Cuomo, who sexually harassed her. The case in state court against the State of NY, her employer, will proceed. pic.twitter.com/dU63bc4vBP Katz alleged that Cuomo made a number of “invasive discovery requests” in an effort to humiliate her. “Mr. Cuomo has used these legal proceedings to punish Ms. Bennett and others who reported his sexual harassment, and to cause more harm to her, all at the expense of New York taxpayers,” Katz said. “On behalf of Ms. Bennett, and in support of all who have faced sexual harassment by powerful men like former Governor Cuomo, we will continue to seek justice in our action against the State of New York.” Bennett filed the suit against the former governor in federal court in New York City in September 2022, alleging Cuomo subjected her to unwanted advances, including telling her he was “lonely” and on the hunt for a girlfriend and asking her if she would be open to sex with an older man. Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 after state Attorney General Letitia James released the results of an investigation that concluded Cuomo had sexually harassed at least 11 women, including Bennett. Bennett played a critical role in Cuomo's eventual downfall. At the time she came forward with her accusations, only one other woman, Lindsey Boylan, had spoken publicly about being harassed by the governor. When Bennett initially told her story to The New York Times , Cuomo appeared to acknowledge that he had hurt her with comments inappropriate for a workplace, but denied that he was making sexual advances. He claimed Bennett had misinterpreted his comments. "Ms. Bennett's decision to drop her baseless lawsuit should be viewed as a complete capitulation and a desperate attempt to avoid being confronted with the mountains of exculpatory discovery-- including contemporaneous texts and videos that the AG’s office never obtained-- that completely refute her claims against Governor Cuomo," Cuomo lawyers Rita Glavin and Theresa Trzaskoma said in a statement Monday. "After falsely smearing Governor Cuomo for years, Ms. Bennett suddenly withdrew her federal lawsuit on the eve of her deposition to avoid having to admit under oath that her allegations were false and her claims had no merit. If New York State does give in to her public pressure campaign and settles, it will not be on the merits and should require the public release of all the evidence so that New Yorkers finally know the truth: Governor Cuomo never sexually harassed anyone." document.write(__reporter_name); - document.write(__reporter_title); document.write(__reporter_bio);
PASAY CITY, Philippines , Dec. 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The SM Group is approaching the coming year with cautious optimism, encouraged by the continued growth of the Philippine economy. SM Investments President and Chief Executive Officer Frederic C. DyBuncio said that despite ongoing challenges of peso volatility and higher inflation, the business sector has adapted well. Consistent demand sustained household spending in the third quarter, with Household Final Consumption Expenditure posting a year-on-year growth of 5.1%, maintaining the same level in the same quarter last year, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed. "Any moderation in inflation should trigger a strong confidence rebound. This could create opportunities in consumer-focused sectors in the country and we are poised to cater to these evolving demands," Mr. DyBuncio said. To cater to growing demand, SM continues to expand into more underserved areas, contributing to sustainable economic development and collaborating with government stakeholders to enhance access to modern retail, financial services, and integrated property developments. "By investing and expanding to more areas nationwide, SM creates new markets and improves access to these essential sectors, serving more communities and helping stimulate sustained economic activities," he said. Mr. DyBuncio also said SM continues to invest in promising ventures such as renewable energy and logistics, that foster economic activity. SM has invested in the clean energy industry through Philippine Geothermal Production Company (PGPC) which produces 300 Megawatts of geothermal steam supply. SM aims to continue to develop geothermal concessions through PGPC in support of the Department of Energy's goal of reaching 50% renewable energy supply by 2040. To encourage circularity towards green energy production, SM's property arm, SM Prime Holdings partnered with GUUN Co. Ltd. (GUUN) to implement the Japanese technique of reducing landfill impact. The technology converts non-recyclable and hard-to-recycle packaging into alternative fuel. SM's banking arm, BDO Unibank is one of the largest funders of renewable energy projects. BDO has funded PHP898 billion in sustainable finance, including loans to 59 renewable energy projects as of December 2023. In logistics and tourism, the improvement of transport networks across the country's archipelago connects tourist and industrial areas that will help create inclusive growth. SM though its subsidiary 2GO launched MV Masigla and MV Masikap in 2024 to help better connect goods to 19 ports across the country including Iloilo, Bacolod, Cagayan de Oro and Manila , further supporting the government's push for medium term growth through an upgraded tourism infrastructure and ecosystem. "Our focus for 2025 will be to drive purposeful growth, empowering communities and partners through our investments towards a sustainable future," Mr. DyBuncio said. SOURCE SM Investments CorporationTHOUSAND OAKS, Calif. , Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a $2.38 per share dividend for the first quarter of 2025. The dividend will be paid on March 7, 2025 , to all stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 14, 2025 . About Amgen Amgen discovers, develops, manufactures and delivers innovative medicines to help millions of patients in their fight against some of the world's toughest diseases. More than 40 years ago, Amgen helped to establish the biotechnology industry and remains on the cutting-edge of innovation, using technology and human genetic data to push beyond what's known today. Amgen is advancing a broad and deep pipeline that builds on its existing portfolio of medicines to treat cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, inflammatory diseases and rare diseases. In 2024, Amgen was named one of the "World's Most Innovative Companies" by Fast Company and one of "America's Best Large Employers" by Forbes, among other external recognitions . Amgen is one of the 30 companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average ® , and it is also part of the Nasdaq-100 Index ® , which includes the largest and most innovative non-financial companies listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market based on market capitalization. For more information, visit Amgen.com and follow Amgen on X , LinkedIn , Instagram , TikTok , YouTube and Threads . Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the current expectations and beliefs of Amgen. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any statements on the outcome, benefits and synergies of collaborations, or potential collaborations, with any other company (including BeiGene, Ltd. or Kyowa Kirin Co., Ltd.), the performance of Otezla® (apremilast) (including anticipated Otezla sales growth and the timing of non-GAAP EPS accretion), our acquisitions of Teneobio, Inc., ChemoCentryx, Inc., or Horizon Therapeutics plc (including the prospective performance and outlook of Horizon's business, performance and opportunities, any potential strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities expected as a result of such acquisition, and any projected impacts from the Horizon acquisition on our acquisition-related expenses going forward), as well as estimates of revenues, operating margins, capital expenditures, cash, other financial metrics, expected legal, arbitration, political, regulatory or clinical results or practices, customer and prescriber patterns or practices, reimbursement activities and outcomes, effects of pandemics or other widespread health problems on our business, outcomes, progress, and other such estimates and results. Forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties, including those discussed below and more fully described in the Securities and Exchange Commission reports filed by Amgen, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and any subsequent periodic reports on Form 10-Q and current reports on Form 8-K. Unless otherwise noted, Amgen is providing this information as of the date of this news release and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this document as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed and actual results may differ materially from those we project. Our results may be affected by our ability to successfully market both new and existing products domestically and internationally, clinical and regulatory developments involving current and future products, sales growth of recently launched products, competition from other products including biosimilars, difficulties or delays in manufacturing our products and global economic conditions. In addition, sales of our products are affected by pricing pressure, political and public scrutiny and reimbursement policies imposed by third-party payers, including governments, private insurance plans and managed care providers and may be affected by regulatory, clinical and guideline developments and domestic and international trends toward managed care and healthcare cost containment. Furthermore, our research, testing, pricing, marketing and other operations are subject to extensive regulation by domestic and foreign government regulatory authorities. We or others could identify safety, side effects or manufacturing problems with our products, including our devices, after they are on the market. Our business may be impacted by government investigations, litigation and product liability claims. In addition, our business may be impacted by the adoption of new tax legislation or exposure to additional tax liabilities. If we fail to meet the compliance obligations in the corporate integrity agreement between us and the U.S. government, we could become subject to significant sanctions. Further, while we routinely obtain patents for our products and technology, the protection offered by our patents and patent applications may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented by our competitors, or we may fail to prevail in present and future intellectual property litigation. We perform a substantial amount of our commercial manufacturing activities at a few key facilities, including in Puerto Rico , and also depend on third parties for a portion of our manufacturing activities, and limits on supply may constrain sales of certain of our current products and product candidate development. An outbreak of disease or similar public health threat, such as COVID-19, and the public and governmental effort to mitigate against the spread of such disease, could have a significant adverse effect on the supply of materials for our manufacturing activities, the distribution of our products, the commercialization of our product candidates, and our clinical trial operations, and any such events may have a material adverse effect on our product development, product sales, business and results of operations. We rely on collaborations with third parties for the development of some of our product candidates and for the commercialization and sales of some of our commercial products. In addition, we compete with other companies with respect to many of our marketed products as well as for the discovery and development of new products. Discovery or identification of new product candidates or development of new indications for existing products cannot be guaranteed and movement from concept to product is uncertain; consequently, there can be no guarantee that any particular product candidate or development of a new indication for an existing product will be successful and become a commercial product. Further, some raw materials, medical devices and component parts for our products are supplied by sole third-party suppliers. Certain of our distributors, customers and payers have substantial purchasing leverage in their dealings with us. The discovery of significant problems with a product similar to one of our products that implicate an entire class of products could have a material adverse effect on sales of the affected products and on our business and results of operations. Our efforts to collaborate with or acquire other companies, products or technology, and to integrate the operations of companies or to support the products or technology we have acquired, may not be successful. There can be no guarantee that we will be able to realize any of the strategic benefits, synergies or opportunities arising from the Horizon acquisition, and such benefits, synergies or opportunities may take longer to realize than expected. We may not be able to successfully integrate Horizon, and such integration may take longer, be more difficult or cost more than expected. A breakdown, cyberattack or information security breach of our information technology systems could compromise the confidentiality, integrity and availability of our systems and our data. Our stock price is volatile and may be affected by a number of events. Our business and operations may be negatively affected by the failure, or perceived failure, of achieving our environmental, social and governance objectives. The effects of global climate change and related natural disasters could negatively affect our business and operations. Global economic conditions may magnify certain risks that affect our business. Our business performance could affect or limit the ability of our Board of Directors to declare a dividend or our ability to pay a dividend or repurchase our common stock. We may not be able to access the capital and credit markets on terms that are favorable to us, or at all. CONTACT: Amgen, Thousand Oaks Elissa Snook , 609-251-1407 (media) Justin Claeys , 805-313-9775 (investors) View original content to download multimedia: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/amgen-announces-2025-first-quarter-dividend-302328180.html SOURCE Amgen
Alset Inc. Completes Purchase Agreement with HWH International Inc.Sports on TV for Monday, Nov. 25
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PM Modi to throw open global cooperative conference on MondayMidnapore: Supporters claiming allegiance to Trinamool MP Dev and local MLA Shankar Dolui clashed in the presence of both functionaries at a preparatory meeting for a children's fair convened at Ghatal stadium on Sunday Dev left the meeting, cancelling it, and later said he would withdraw from the fair organising committee. The clash resulted in several injuries, with victims requiring hospitalisation. IPL 2025 mega auction IPL Auction 2025 Live: Rishabh Pant, Shreyas, Venkatesh hit the jackpot IPL 2025 Auction LIVE: Updated Full Team Squads IPL Auction 2025: Who got whom Authorities deployed police to control the situation. Dev said he had initially not been part of the committee but was included later. The day's meeting was intended to bring Dev and Dolui supporters together, culminating in a joint press conference by the MP and MLA to demonstrate unity. Dolui later expressed his disappointment with the meeting's outcome, suggesting the violence had been planned. Later, addressing the public, Dev apologised to Ghatal residents and committed to preventing such occurrences in the future, regardless of his MP status. He emphasised that Ghatal's residents were traditionally peaceful, and this incident was uncharacteristic. Dev clarified that the fair was intended for public benefit, not political purposes, with plans to ensure reasonable pricing at stalls.
MTVA stock touches 52-week low at $2.04 amid market challenges
IPL 2025 mega auction Manoj Chaurasia is a senior political journalist having experience of working for top national and international media in a career spanning over 25 years. He loves writing political, offbeat and human-interest stories. Read More 10 ways to use pumpkin seeds 7 things that boys learn from their moms 10 Indian breakfast dishes loved across the world How to grow onion and garlic on your kitchen window Kid-friendly wildlife experiences in India How to make Chicken Chili Pakora at home 10 types of South-Indian rice dishes and how to make them 10 most beautiful offbeat places for solo travel in India (2025) Persimmon: Nutrients, health benefits of this vibrant orange colored fruit 8 animals that have more than 2 eyesGhana opposition leader Mahama officially wins election
LENSAR Reports Inducement Grants Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)MTVA stock touches 52-week low at $2.04 amid market challenges
