Mysterious googly eyes go viral after appearing on public art in OregonIt’s certainly been one of the more chaotic weeks in UMass football history. Less than a week removed from the firing of former head coach Don Brown, the Minutemen will somehow try and turn the page to play against one of the top programs in the country on Saturday. UMass (2-8) travels to No. 8 Georgia (8-2) for a 12:45 p.m. kickoff at Sanford Stadium in Athens. The teams have met just once all time, a 66-27 Georgia victory back in 2018. While the opponent is certainly daunting, what type of Minuteman team will show up six days removed from losing their head coach? To make matters worse, several members of the program took to social media on Thursday night, voicing displeasure that the administration had changed their Senior Day program for next weekend’s finale against UConn. A letter to team members said that “due to the number of players who are completing their eligibility and graduating from school,” players would not be introduced individually prior to the Nov. 30 game against UConn. Tight end Dom Mazotti brought the situation to X, saying “For the department to take away honoring individuals who have given their all to this great university, is asinine.” Other players chimed in with similar sentiments, including leading receiver Jakobie Keeney-James and safety Te’Rai Powell. UMass defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski also commented, quote tweeting Powell’s disappointment by saying “to all the seniors I have nothing but gratitude for all you have done for UMass football. It has been an honor to coach you all these last 3 seasons. Let’s finish what we started.” The UMass football official account backtracked its initial statement to players on Friday morning, calling the issue a “miscommunication with our team regarding the Senior Day activities planned for next Saturday.” The school said it would meet with players later on Friday to “further discuss the logistics of Senior Day.” Article continues after... Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess With all that bubbling, and a coaching staff in flux, what can fans expect against Georgia? “It’ll be challenging,” said interim head coach Shane Montgomery, who was elevated from his position as offensive coordinator on Monday to replace Brown for the final two games of the 2024 campaign. “Any time you have 90-100,000 fans, that’s different than what you get every week. You end up playing a team that’s two years removed from back-to-back national championships. I’m sure you’ll see them in the playoff [this year]. Whether they’re No. 1 or No. 2 or [No. 8], they’re still Georgia. You’re going to face a lot of All-Americans on both sides of the ball, you’re going to face a lot of five-star recruits.” It’s the third and final SEC opponent on UMass’ schedule this season. It lost to Missouri (45-3) and Mississippi State (45-20), putting the Minutemen 0-13 all time against the nation’s toughest conference. “They play multiple SEC teams,” Georgia head coach Kirby Smart said of UMass. “It’s good because you get to watch how they played those teams but it’s unfortunate because those teams don’t have the same schemes we do. But uniquely UMass, their quarterback is out from [when they played Missouri and Mississippi State]. So now they’re using a two-quarterback system with guys that aren’t on those tapes.” Montgomery said during Tuesday’s press availability that he will still call plays, though he’ll now be on the sideline instead of up in the booth. Defensive coordinator Keith Dudzinski will handle defensive responsibilities, an area where Brown also had a hand prior to his departure, though Montgomery doesn’t anticipate a major overhaul to that side of the ball. Georgia presents a number of problems for opponents, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. The Bulldogs are 15th in the country in yards allowed (307.8) and 16th in points allowed (18.3) despite playing one of the toughest schedules. They have wins over Clemson, Texas and Tennessee this season, and sit 10th in the most recent College Football Playoff ranking. “I’ve been fortunate to play against some good defenses over the years, this is probably the most talented that I’ve ever faced,” offered Montgomery. “Kirby does a great job of preparing them. It’s going to be a challenge for us.” UMass put together one of its best offensive outings of the season last week in the team’s 35-34 overtime loss to Liberty. The Minutemen racked up 426 yards of offense and 263 on the ground. With quarterback Taisun Phommachanh out for the season due to injury, redshirt freshman Ahmad Haston started against Liberty. The team mixed Haston in with true freshman AJ Hairston, and both played well – Haston racking up 62 yards rushing and Hairston completing 13 passes for 163 yards. Montgomgery said he expects both quarterbacks to play again on Saturday. “I thought AJ played really well [against Liberty],” Montgomery began. “You’re talking about a redshirt freshman [Haston] and a true freshman [Hairston]. Ahmad [played] a few [games] last year... did have some pressure situations but he hadn’t had that really this year. AJ has a really strong arm, he’s got one of the strongest arms of a young quarterback that I’ve had. When you throw a true freshman like that at quarterback against a quality opponent, you really don’t know how they’re going to react. I really wanted to get his feet wet early and see what he can do but as he went on and on, he really showed what he can do.” While running the ball against Georgia will be a challenge, Montgomery noted that the team is going to try hard to find some semblance of a balance early on. “The biggest thing going into this type of game is they’ve got a great run defense. We have to try to find ways to run the ball early,” he said. “We cannot become one-dimensional early in the game. Whatever the score is, whatever happens early, we’re going to have to find some things that work.” UMass will have to find a way to slow down a Georgia offense led by expected first round draft pick Carson Beck at quarterback. The senior has thrown for 2,835 yards, 19 touchdowns and 12 interceptions this season, though the Minutemen rank fifth in the country in passing yardage allowed at just 159.6. Montgomery said he’s friends with Georgia offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, whose unit has topped the 30-point plateau in eight of its 10 games. The game will be televised on the SEC Network, with Dave Neal and Max Starks on the call. Georgia is a 42-point favorite.

Article content A photograph of Luigi Mangione, the 26-year-old man accused of killing a health care executive in New York City on Dec. 4, is strikingly reminiscent of one of the most famous images of a would-be assassin from the 19th century. After his capture in late April of 1865, Lewis Powell was photographed aboard the USS Saugus, where he was held before trial on charges of conspiracy and attempted murder for his participation in the plot to kill Abraham Lincoln and top members of his government. Recommended Videos The Powell photograph was taken by the Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, who posed the 21-year-old man against what appears to be the pitted metal cover of the ship’s gun turret. Like an image of Mangione made shortly after his capture, the Gardner photograph shows a handsome young man against a bland, almost abstract background, staring directly at the viewer with half-open but alert eyes. Gardner’s portrait is famous today, in part, because it was key to a 1980 book about photography, “Camera Lucida,” written by the brilliant French critic Roland Barthes. For Barthes, the image of a man who engages the camera with a keen sense of intelligence, yet who would be executed only a few months later, encapsulated one of the central mysteries of photography: It can sustain the living presence of something that has passed or died. “He is dead, and he is going to die ...” he wrote. But Barthes was also captivated by Powell’s good looks, as many people on social media are clearly drawn to Mangione’s chiseled features, despite the accusation that he killed UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. Images of a shirtless and muscular Mangione have flooded social media, along with memes that pose him as a saint with a halo or a potential martyr protectively embraced by Jesus (“It’s okay they called me guilty too,” reads one poorly punctuated caption). A Free Luigi movement presents him as a folk hero, images of his hooded face before capture have apparently been tattooed on arms or legs, and on TikTok and other sites he’s been given the epithet of a superhero or cinema vigilante: “The Adjuster.” Praise for him seems to cross partisan lines and is worrisome to the insurance industry, which suddenly seems to be widely loathed in the United States despite polls that paint a more complicated picture. “My empathy is out of network,” another phrase circulating on social media, suggests that many people are struggling to hold in their heads two ideas at the same time: That killing is wrong and yet our health care system, and especially the insurance industry that generates enormous profits, is arguably broken and at times feels cruel. Memes are a good way to think one thought vehemently, but less efficient at thinking two thoughts simultaneously. Behind many of the images celebrating or excusing the crime Mangione is accused of committing are two ideas that Barthes might have called “mythologies,” spoken or unspoken thoughts that arise within a capitalist society that feel powerfully true yet often elude rational analysis or criticism. In the case of the Mangione images, these seem to be: “He doesn’t look like a killer” and “Somebody should do something about this,” with “this” being the state of the private health care industry. The notion that Mangione doesn’t look like a killer should be easily dismissed, if we give even rudimentary consideration to how class and race influence popular conceptions of criminality. Mangione is White, comes from a privileged background and went to a private school. But it would be a ridiculous syllogism – racist, classist and just plain ignorant – to conclude, “therefore he can’t be a criminal.” “Somebody should do something about this” is deeply problematic, too, but in different ways. Who is the somebody, and what is the something? “Somebody” could be politicians, or voters, or health-care executives, who might be chastened by public anger into diverting more of their profits into actual health care and the well-being of the American people. “Something” could be reform or regulation, which voters seem to have rejected in the last election. Or it could be the institution of a single-payer, public system, that doesn’t divert billions of dollars of profit to private shareholders and insurance executives. But voters seemed to have rejected that, too, on several occasions. The vagueness of the “Somebody should do something” idea is the problem. One of the most disturbing memes circulating shows the moment that Thompson is shot, a grainy image of a figure in a dark, hooded jacket with a backpack points a gun at the back of man in a suit a few feet away, both casting shadows on the momentarily empty sidewalk. Underneath, the word “Hope” appears in sans serif type, just as it did in the famous 2008 Shepard Fairey poster promoting the presidential campaign of Barack Obama. This meme celebrates the violence itself, the something, with no reference to the someone, or anything else that might put it in context. Rationally, pragmatically, morally, there’s no justifying homicide. And it may be that our insurance rates only go up given the industry’s investment in more security, costs which could be born by the consumer. If violence becomes the routine remedy for consumer dissatisfaction or political dysfunction, the cost to society is inestimably high and unsustainable. This image is profoundly disturbing because it seems to collapse two more things into one: We know killing is wrong and yet no one will acknowledge and address the rage, the hurt, the death, that comes from harnessing health care to a capitalist system that insists on the highest possible return on shareholder investment. It wasn’t a crime, it was self-defense; it isn’t terrorism, it’s revolution. Have we reached that point? I’m staring at a 2023 letter from my insurance provider blandly addressed to “Dear Appellant.” It tells me that despite my being told, and reassured twice, that I would only be responsible out of pocket for $800 for a procedure that costs $5,000, they would in fact reimburse only a few hundred dollars of the cost. I fought it, I spent hours on the phone, wrote multiple letters, sent emails, demanded they refer back to their own records, reference numbers and promises, and yet I lost. I’m looking at the woman’s signature at the bottom of the letter and all the rage I felt then, amplified by the rage I feel at airlines, banks, shrinkflation and the company that made my lemon of a car, comes flooding back. How does Alicia live with herself, writing these terrible letters, doing this cruel work in service of oligarchs, day after day? I was lucky, the procedure worked, the cost didn’t bankrupt me – and the anger abated. But what if it hadn’t worked, what if the problem and the pain persisted? What if the costs were unsustainable and I lost my home, my car, my retirement trying to stay above water? The iconography of political violence depends on who wins the argument, who writes the history and who paints the picture. The biblical David is invariably depicted as a beautiful young man, a beauty that helps reassure us of the morality of his single-handed slaying of Goliath. Artemisia Gentileschi’s early 17th century depiction of Judith slaying Holofernes – which probably channeled the rage and hurt she felt after having been raped – depicts the heroine as a beautiful, powerful woman. People making memes of Mangione may not be thinking of these particular examples, but they are clearly aware of how history determines memory, how it can redefine a savage attack as righteous vengeance, and lone acts of violence as collective self-defense. I find myself profoundly disconcerted by these images, and I waver in what I feel, arguing in my head with both his defenders (that they are paving the path to social ruin) and his critics (that they profoundly underestimate and recklessly discount the quantum of rage at the insurance industry). One way to keep both of these thoughts balanced in the mind is to look back on the history of violence and iconography, and insert a negative into both of the mythologies circulating in these memes: If somebody doesn’t do something about this problem, then he won’t look like a killer.

Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film and Television (SFTV) has set the inaugural Innovators Film Festival, a two-day global student short film event set for March 27 and 28, 2025 on LMU ’s Westchester campus. This forward-looking festival will showcase short films from student filmmakers across the globe, incorporating advanced technology into their projects. The Innovators Film Festival will feature short films showcasing how technology, such as AI, VFX, and VR are driving creative innovation in modern storytelling. Each film must include a technological element in its production, emphasizing the integration of AI, digital effects, or virtual production techniques. In addition to screenings, the festival will host insightful panels with industry professionals, exploring how AI can be effectively utilized in filmmaking, the ways major networks and studios are incorporating AI into content creation, and discussions on AI ethics in the entertainment industry. Attendees will also have the chance to network with representatives from top studios and production companies, creating invaluable opportunities for career advancement and connection. “We’re excited to launch this festival recognizing LMU’s awareness that AI will have a place in responsible filmmaking. The festival offers an incredible opportunity for students to gain firsthand experience and knowledge that will equip them for success in the rapidly changing landscape of the entertainment industry,” said LMU SFTV Dean Joanne Moore. In March 2024, SFTV co-sponsored the third Innovation Symposium: Disruption and Innovation in Entertainment, attracting more than 200 leading industry and academic experts to discuss how AI and new technology is impacting the entertainment industry. Further advancing the university’s commitment to incorporating new tech into the classroom, LMU offered a brand-new AI course this fall titled “Producing and Screenwriting with AI,” taught by screenwriting professor and Verified Labs CEO Justin Trevor Winters. This course focuses on using AI in content creation, from development to distribution. Additionally, LMU SFTV and LMU Loyola Law School will introduce “The Business of Screenwriting – Law and AI” in the spring, exploring the intersection of law, technology, and entertainment, including AI ethics, IP ownership, and innovative distribution methods.Sam Hicks, defense lead Abilene Christian over Northern Arizona 24-0 to extend 1st trip to playoffs

The Real-Deal American NFL Celebrity Couple Run Circles Around Taylor Swift And Travis KelceMarvell Stock Soars 23% as Strong Demand for Custom Artificial Intelligence (AI) Chips Drives Q3 Results and Guidance Above Expectations

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In conclusion, as Ronaldo continues to mesmerize fans and critics alike with his extraordinary talent and unwavering determination, the possibility of him reaching the 1000-goal milestone and playing beyond 45 is not just wishful thinking - it is a realistic goal within his grasp. Only time will tell what the future holds for the ageless wonder that is Cristiano Ronaldo.In conclusion, the 1.2% year-on-year growth in China's import and export value in November reflects a positive trend in the country's foreign trade. By staying vigilant, adapting to changing market conditions, and pursuing strategic trade policies, China can navigate the challenges ahead and continue to strengthen its position as a major player in the global trade landscape.

As technology continues to advance and reliance on cloud services grows, incidents like the ALIYUN data center fire serve as a stark reminder of the importance of investing in robust infrastructure and disaster recovery capabilities. ALIYUN's ability to swiftly respond and mitigate the impact of the fire showcases their dedication to providing reliable and secure cloud services to their customers.As a credit card expert who travels constantly, I'm always looking for ways to make travel more affordable , and Southwest hits the nail on the head with its companion pass. The unlimited Southwest Companion Pass may be the most valuable elite status perk offered by any airline. Every fall, my friends, family and clients reach out to me to learn how they can earn their own Companion Pass. What is the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass? Southwest is the only major airline that offers a companion pass with an unlimited number of uses. Southwest's Companion Pass essentially offers a free plane ticket for whoever you choose to bring with you. You simply pay for your own ticket and any taxes and fees for your designated companion. (It's typically just the $5.60 TSA fee per flight, plus any taxes or fees imposed by foreign countries for international flights). You can add your companion to flights that you paid for, or to flights that were paid for by someone else. You can even add your companion to your award flights booked with your Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards points or booked with someone else's points. As long as your name and Rapid Rewards number are attached to the reservation, you can add your companion, and you won't have to pay more than the taxes and fees for their ticket. The Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is valid for the remainder of the year in which you earn it, plus the following year. So if you earn the pass in December 2024, it will only be valid until the end of 2025, which isn't a good idea. Instead, I recommend earning your pass in early 2025, so that it's valid until the end of 2026. How do you qualify for the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass? There are several ways that you can qualify for the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass. You could fly 100 one-way qualifying (paid) flights, but that would be the equivalent of taking a round-trip flight nearly every week of the year. And it would take you most or all of the year to earn it. Or, you could earn 135,000 Companion Pass qualifying points through any combination of paid flights, partner hotel stays, partner car rentals or through their Rapid Rewards credit cards. Earning the points through flights, partner hotels and partner car rentals is possible for frequent business travelers, but you'll most likely earn the pass later in the calendar year. If you're not a frequent traveler on paid tickets, and you don't book your rental cars and hotel stays through Southwest, then your best option to earn the Companion Pass is by earning welcome bonuses with the Southwest Rapid Rewards credit cards . By applying for two Rapid Rewards credit cards, and earning their welcome bonuses , it's possible to earn the 135,000 points very quickly. In fact, Southwest gives you 10,000 Companion Pass qualifying points just for having one of these cards. The Southwest Companion Pass is a high-value perk, but it's not worth going into debt over. If you're earning the pass via the card's welcome bonus, only spend what you're able to pay off. How much could you save with a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass? With 135,000 Rapid Rewards points, you'll earn about $1,890 of award travel, as these points are worth about 1.4 cents each, according to The Points Guy . But when you add your companion to those award flights, the reward value essentially doubles to $3,780. And since you can add your companion to an unlimited number of flights, not just the ones you paid for with these points, the value of this pass is potentially limitless. The best Southwest credit cards for earning a Companion Pass To earn your Companion Pass, you have to apply for and be approved for two credit cards that have a total welcome bonus of 125,000 points or more. A good place to start is with one of their personal cards like the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card*, the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card* or the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card*. All three of these cards are currently offering new applicants 50,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first three months of card membership. They offer different benefits, with annual fees of $69, $99 and $149 respectively. Chase's rules say that you can only get the welcome bonus for one personal card every 24 months, so your second card needs to be a small business card. Luckily, you can qualify for a small business card based on any income you earn outside of your employer, even if you're just an unincorporated sole proprietor. For example, if you walk dogs, deliver food, babysit or sell stuff online, or are about to start one of these types of businesses, then you can qualify for a small business credit card. If you aren't incorporated, you can apply as an unincorporated sole proprietor, using your Social Security number instead of an Employer Identification Number. Currently, the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card* offers 60,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases within three months of account opening, and has an annual fee of $99. The Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card offers new cardholders 80,000 bonus points after spending $5,000 on new purchases within three months of account opening. As their top-of-the-line card, it comes with numerous benefits that help justify its $199 annual fee. With one personal card, and the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business card, you'll earn 130,000 bonus points, and a total of at least 136,000 points once you've met the minimum spending requirements of $1,000 and $5,000. Alternatively, you could apply for two small business credit cards. Earning both these bonuses will give you more than enough points to qualify for the Companion Pass. Make sure you earn your bonuses in a 2025 statement period to receive a companion pass that's valid until the end of 2026. Since you receive your points when your monthly statement closes, it's possible to precisely time your Companion Pass. What I like to do is to set my payment due date to the 26th of the month, which means that my statement closes on the first of the month. This way, I can meet my minimum spending requirements in December, and have my Companion Pass in hand at the beginning of January. My wife and I have done this numerous times, and it always works like a charm! Is earning the Companion Pass worth it? Putting $6,000 on your credit cards in three months isn't advisable for everyone. Again, you should only charge to your card what you can pay off by your next statement balance to avoid interest. But if you travel enough to support that kind of spending, earning the companion pass could save you and your travel partner plenty of money in the long run. *All information about the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus Credit Card, the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Credit Card and the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Priority Credit Card has been collected independently by CNET and has not been reviewed by the issuer.'I'm a sleep expert - make at least one change to sleep better in 2025'

As the current season in Ligue 1 unfolds, fans eagerly anticipate each match to see what magic this player will conjure next. Will he continue his goal-scoring spree and lead his team to glory? Only time will tell. One thing is for certain, though - the red devil has found his form and is ready to take on the challenges of the Champions League next year. Europe, brace yourselves, for the forgotten star is ready to shine bright once again.

In the meantime, fans can continue to enjoy the existing Witcher games, revisit Geralt's past adventures, and speculate about what the future may hold for their favorite monster hunter. And who knows, perhaps one day soon, CD Projekt Red will lift the veil of secrecy and reveal what lies in store for Geralt of Rivia and the world of The Witcher. Until then, the wait continues with bated breath and anticipation for the next chapter in this beloved saga.

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A pair of teams with minimal rest will face off in Nassau, Bahamas, on Sunday when No. 22 St. John takes on Georgia. St. John's (5-1), which will play its third game in four days, began the stretch in the Bahamas Championship on Thursday, dropping a heartbreaker to No. 13 Baylor. The Red Storm led by 18 in the first half before Baylor forced overtime. From there, St. John's rallied from five down with 1:47 left to send the game to a second overtime, where it saw Baylor knock down a pair of 3-pointers in the final seven seconds -- including Jeremy Roach's buzzer-beater -- to knock off the Red Storm 99-98. In the third-place game on Friday, St. John's breezed past Virginia 80-55. RJ Luis Jr. led the way with 18 points and four steals, followed by Kadary Richmond's 12 points, as the Red Storm took a one-point lead with 15:21 left in the first half and didn't trail again. "I'm really impressed with our guys, coming off a double-overtime, extremely emotional loss," St. John's head coach Rick Pitino said. "To respond that way was extremely impressive, both offensively and defensively." Pitino, in his second year with the Red Storm, was moved by something off the court on Friday, involving captain Zuby Ejiofor, who chipped in eight points, nine boards, two steals and two blocks. Ejiofor was serenaded by St. John's fans during the win, following his two missed free throws at the end of double overtime against Baylor. "When you've only been in a job for a year, you search for things you love about a place," Pitino said. "Tonight I found out what I love about St. John's. Our fans chanted Zuby's name the whole game, which doesn't happen anywhere else in America. I was really impressed with our fans and I thank them for making Zuby feel good, because he gives you all the energy." Luis leads the Red Storm with 17.3 points per game, followed by Ejiofor (10.7), Aaron Scott (10.5), Deivon Smith (10.3) and Richmond (10.2). Georgia enters Sunday's matchup looking to rebound from its first loss after falling to No. 15 Marquette 80-69 on Saturday. Georgia (5-1) battled back from a 15-point, second-half deficit, but was held to just three points over the final 4:57 in Saturday's loss. Blue Cain led the Bulldogs with a season-high 17 points, including five 3-pointers. "It's a process. It's a journey with this team," Bulldogs head coach Mike White said. "It's about continuing to make strides, continuing to protect our culture. ... At the end of the day, wins and losses are going to take care of themselves. We just have to embrace the process and enjoy it." Five-star freshman recruit Asa Newell was held to a season-low nine points but leads the team with 15.5 points per game. Silas Demary Jr. is second with 13.8. --Field Level MediaIfeku Island: A new dawn for Afenmai region

Joe Rogan (Image: PxImages/SPP/Louis Grasse) Donald Trump was joined for his post-midnight election victory address by his family, his running mate JD Vance, House Speaker Mike Johnson, and co-campaign managers Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita. One apparent outlier was Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Speaking third, White thanked YouTube pranksters the Nelk Boys, Louisianan stand-up comedian and podcaster Theo Von, controversial Kick streamer Adin Ross, and “ the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan ”. Given the US election result, White’s description of the hugely popular podcaster seems apt. In the lead-up to November 5, both Kamala Harris and Trump scheduled a string of sitdowns with an eclectic mix of influencers, sports players, comedians and media personalities. It’s not difficult to understand why. Almost half of Americans — an estimated 135 million people — say they listen to a podcast monthly, which is more than twice the share who said the same in 2016, during Trump’s first presidential run. On election day, the two top streamers, right-wingers Dan Bongino and Steven Crowder, raked in around half a million viewers each, exceeding all media companies except for FOX and NBC. Da pacem, Domine: Why Trump is what democracy needs Read More But the election results indicate the presidential candidates did not garner equal success in this new media space. The porous ecosystem of the podcasting and streaming “manosphere” connects stand-up comedy, mixed martial arts and online bro culture. And it elevates figures such as Elon Musk, Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson, who offer unapologetic support for traditional gender roles and attacks against “wokeism”. Rogan might be the gravitational centre around which this ecosystem orbits, and it is a welcoming place for Trump’s anti-establishment message and his rebuke of mainstream media. The long and unstructured form of Rogan’s and adjacent podcasts and their sympathetic hosts allows Trump’s loose rhetorical style — his self-described “weave” — to land for audiences familiar with, and wanting, spontaneity and easygoing flow. And it is likely that these appearances helped him to propel traditionally low-propensity young male voters to the ballot box. In his bid to court the so-called “ bro vote, ” Trump engaged dozens of podcasters and streamers on the political fringe who share a common audience of young, politically disengaged men. In the final days of the campaign, Trump — followed by Vance, then billionaire backer Musk—went on The Joe Rogan Experience , America’s most-consumed podcast . These appearances culminated in Rogan offering his endorsement of the Republican ticket, arguably the zenith for a US presidential election where nontraditional media played an unprecedented role. The Trump campaign’s media strategy appears to have paid off. Trump scored massive gains among young men, winning this demographic 49% to Harris’s 47%. This marks a dramatic swing from 2020, when Joe Biden picked up most of the young male vote (52% to Trump’s 41%). Trump also made significant inroads in wresting away votes from traditional Democratic constituencies. According to exit polls, Latino men veered to Trump in higher numbers than ever before, across red and blue states alike . Meanwhile, the Democrats’ edge among Black men was blunted enough to tip the scale in Trump’s favour in key swing states such as Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. By contrast, there are few signs that Harris’s approach to nontraditional media benefited her campaign, despite the Democratic nominee’s surge of early enthusiasm from young people on social media. An appearance with Rogan, which was reportedly on the cards, ultimately fell through after the two parties were unable to agree on interview conditions. This was viewed by some as a missed opportunity for her campaign to engage with young men. But whether she would have found success with Rogan’s audience remains an open question. ‘Deeply repulsive’: ABC chair Kim Williams rails against Joe Rogan amid pitch for greater funding Read More In the election post-mortem, some commentators and DNC insiders have argued that the Democrats need their own Rogan. But they did have their own Rogan in 2020, when Bernie Sanders, then a Democratic primary candidate, appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience and secured the host’s endorsement. At the time, Sanders was lambasted for going on the show. Harris’s strategy instead largely focused on reaching Independent and moderate Republican women through appearing on shows like Call Her Daddy , a podcast that is hugely popular among women, most of whom are young and a sizeable chunk of whom are independent voters . And Harris’s interview with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson for their podcast All the Smoke was seen as an attempt to shore up support among Black men. Harris hemorrhaged votes to Trump on all fronts. The gender gap, though notably wide among young people, did not reach the historic margins that were expected in the so-called “ gender election. ” Even among cohorts that Harris won — such as Black men, women, and young voters — she secured a far slimmer margin of victory compared to Hillary Clinton in 2016 or Biden in 2020. For candidates, the benefits of engaging with these non-traditional outlets seem clear: cutting through a saturated media market; leveraging the parasocial relationships between hosts and their fans; less chance of pushback than from a trained journalist. This election cycle also indicates just how ubiquitous “new media” has become, and its movement from the fringe to the centre. Future campaign strategists will continue to adapt to a mediascape beyond the world of prime-time interviews and broadcast advertising. And Trump’s victory suggests they will need to reckon with its gendered structure and content that — for the most successful shows — speak to the desires and interests of young men. Have something to say about this article? Write to us at letters@crikey.com.au . Please include your full name to be considered for publication in Crikey’s Your Say . We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new position in Block, Inc. ( NYSE:SQ – Free Report ) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 22,477 shares of the technology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,509,000. Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Block by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Yoder Wealth Management Inc. now owns 39,688 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,664,000 after purchasing an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its stake in shares of Block by 1.9% in the third quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 7,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $520,000 after acquiring an additional 145 shares during the period. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Block by 2.5% in the third quarter. Moser Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,265 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $421,000 after purchasing an additional 153 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC lifted its stake in Block by 6.3% in the third quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 2,592 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $174,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. boosted its position in shares of Block by 13.8% during the third quarter. Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. now owns 1,351 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $91,000 after buying an additional 164 shares during the period. 70.44% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Insiders Place Their Bets In related news, CAO Ajmere Dale sold 500 shares of Block stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $67.00, for a total transaction of $33,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 90,460 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,060,820. This trade represents a 0.55 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link . Also, insider Brian Grassadonia sold 1,884 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $65.41, for a total value of $123,232.44. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 574,914 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $37,605,124.74. This trade represents a 0.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here . Insiders have sold a total of 12,283 shares of company stock valued at $862,773 in the last 90 days. 10.49% of the stock is owned by insiders. Block Stock Performance Analysts Set New Price Targets A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. Macquarie reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $100.00 target price on shares of Block in a research note on Friday, July 26th. BNP Paribas cut Block from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $88.00 target price for the company. in a report on Wednesday. Piper Sandler restated an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 price target on shares of Block in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Block from $80.00 to $90.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on Block in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and twenty-four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $91.18. Read Our Latest Stock Report on SQ Block Company Profile ( Free Report ) Square, Inc provides payment and point-of-sale solutions in the United States and internationally. The company's commerce ecosystem includes point-of-sale software and hardware that enables sellers to turn mobile and computing devices into payment and point-of-sale solutions. It offers hardware products, including Magstripe reader, which enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Contactless and chip reader that accepts EMV® chip cards and Near Field Communication payments; Chip card reader, which accepts EMV® chip cards and enables swiped transactions of magnetic stripe cards; Square Stand, which enables an iPad to be used as a payment terminal or full point of sale solution; and Square Register that combines its hardware, point-of-sale software, and payments technology, as well as managed payments solutions. See Also Want to see what other hedge funds are holding SQ? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Block, Inc. ( NYSE:SQ – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Block Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Block and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .

B.C. Premier Eby says U.S. tariffs would be ‘devastating’ for forest industry

Crypto is soaring after Trump’s election − but is it a good ethical investment?Applicants for a new Manitoba Health card who expect to receive a modern plastic version featuring the northern lights will be disappointed. Read this article for free: Already have an account? To continue reading, please subscribe: * Applicants for a new Manitoba Health card who expect to receive a modern plastic version featuring the northern lights will be disappointed. Read unlimited articles for free today: Already have an account? Applicants for a new Manitoba Health card who expect to receive a modern plastic version featuring the northern lights will be disappointed. The decades-old paper health card will continue to be issued until the provincial government can roll out the long-promised plastic card. A spokesperson for cabinet communications couldn’t explain the reason for the delay. Premier Wab Kinew promised in his state of the province address on Dec. 3 that Manitobans would be able to “order” the new plastic card this month. He said at the time that it would replace the printed paper version that hasn’t changed in close to 50 years. The new Manitoba Health card will feature an image of the northern lights. (Free Press files) “We’re moving Manitoba strongly, decisively into the 1980s,” he quipped at the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce event. The government’s throne speech on Nov. 19 also stated that “This December, you can apply for a new, plastic health card illuminated by the winning design, (the) northern lights.” In a year-end interview with The Canadian Press, the premier said the rollout has been delayed until mid-January, in part because the Canada Post strike prevented a “pile” of new paper health cards from being sent out. Neither the premier nor government communications staff could say how many paper health cards were held up or explain how the strike had slowed the rollout of the plastic cards. The Canada Post disruption that began Nov. 15 and ended Dec. 17 doesn’t explain the reason for the delay, said Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook. “A postal strike doesn’t prevent the government from taking applications online or printing plastic health cards to send out once the strike ends,” Cook said in an email. “This delay is yet another broken promise from the NDP on health care,” the member for Roblin said. “Details related to the production of the province’s new plastic health cards are still being finalized,” a government spokesman wrote in an email Tuesday, without elaborating. Once those details and a new online application for the plastic card is in place, Manitobans can apply for it. They won’t be sent automatically to people covered by Manitoba Health. “The new plastic card is optional, so until people apply, Manitoba Health assumes people still want their paper version,” the spokesman said. In addition, it won’t be first-come, first-served, a cabinet communications assistant said. “The new application system will prioritize those who do not currently have a health card to ensure that we get them the coverage they need first,” she said. Requiring Manitobans to apply for the plastic replacement card will help to ensure that the province has the correct, up-to-date name, date of birth and address information, “and especially so they get delivered to the right address,” she said. The government, which has promised to fix health care and is 14 months into its mandate, could’ve scored points by offering Manitobans modern, durable and attractive health cards to replace the worn-out paper ones, said one expert, who added it would have been viewed as a quick fix and emblematic of progress. “It’s a bit of a joke that our cards look the way they do,” University of Winnipeg political science Prof. Malcolm Bird said about the outdated paper health cards. “I think they thought, ‘Oh, this will be an easy win.’ Like many things, it’s more complicated than one would imagine,” he said. The province has said a digital version will be available for Manitobans to save on their smartphones. “What might look like to be a good public relations thing — bringing in new plastic health cards— is not moving as fast as it should be or could be, or ideally would,” said Bird. “That then cast doubt, and cast light on the very serious challenges this government’s facing trying to ‘fix health care’ because that’s complex,” he said. The underlying problem is Manitoba’s $1.3-billion deficit, said Bird. The government spokesman said the cost of switching to modern health cards is not available. “However, it is anticipated that the cost will be less than what was spent to produce the COVID-19 vaccination card ( $1.67 each ),” he said. Cook noted it’s just the latest in a string of delays on government promises. “They pledged more beds at the Grace Hospital by March this year and minor injury clinics at Grace and Misericordia this fall, but failed to meet both deadlines. Manitobans deserve a government that delivers on its commitments,” she said. Winnipeg Jets Game Days On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop. Bird said the latest snafu is telling. “They’ve had it very easy for the last while, and now things are going to get more difficult.” The Tories are gearing up to elect a new leader in April and “will have more oomph and more direction and more motivation to really challenge this government. Then it’ll become even harder to govern,” the academic said. “Their honeymoon period, as it were, was very long and I think it’s now coming to an end.” carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca Carol Sanders is a reporter at the legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. . Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. For updates and information on Manitoba Health cards, visit the province’s . Carol Sanders is a reporter at the legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. . Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the ‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about , and . Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider . Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support. Advertisement Advertisement

Alyssa Nakken, first full-time female coach in MLB history, leaving Giants to join GuardiansCanadian National Railway (NYSE:CNI) Stock Position Lessened by Caprock Group LLC

The long sports-filled Thanksgiving weekend is a time when many Americans enjoy gathering with friends and family for good food, good company and hopefully not too much political conversation. Also on the menu — all the NFL and college sports you can handle. Here's a roadmap to one of the biggest sports weekends of the year, with a look at marquee games over the holiday and how to watch. All times are in EST. All odds are by BetMGM Sportsbook. • NFL: There is a triple-header lined up for pro football fans. Chicago at Detroit, 12:30 p.m., CBS: Rookie quarterback Caleb Williams and the Bears go against the Lions, who are one of the favorites to reach the Super Bowl in February. Lions favored by 10. New York at Dallas, 4:30 p.m., Fox: The Giants and Cowboys are both suffering through miserable seasons and are now using backup quarterbacks for different reasons. But if Dallas can figure out a way to win, it will still be on the fringe of the playoff race. Cowboys favored by 3 1/2. Miami at Green Bay, 8:20 p.m., NBC/Peacock: The Packers stumbled slightly out of the gate but have won six of their past seven games. They'll need a win against Miami to try to keep pace in the NFC North. Packers favored by 3. • College Football: Memphis at No. 18 Tulane, 7:30 p.m., ESPN. If college football is your jam, this is a good warmup for a big weekend. The Tigers try to ruin the Green Wave’s perfect record in the American Athletic Conference. Tulane is favored by 14. • NFL: A rare Friday showdown features the league-leading Chiefs. Las Vegas at Kansas City, 3 p.m. Prime Video: The Chiefs and quarterback Patrick Mahomes are 12-point favorites over the Raiders. • College Basketball: Some of the top programs meet in holiday tournaments around the country. Battle 4 Atlantis championship, 5:30 p.m., ESPN: One of the premier early season tournaments, the eight-team field includes No. 3 Gonzaga, No. 14 Indiana and No. 24 Arizona. Rady Children's Invitational, 6 p.m., Fox: It's the championship game for a four-team field that includes No. 13 Purdue and No. 23 Mississippi. • College Football: There is a full slate of college games to dig into. Oregon State at No. 11 Boise State, noon, Fox: The Broncos try to stay in the College Football Playoff hunt when they host the Beavers. Boise State favored by 19 1/2. Oklahoma State at No. 23 Colorado, noon, ABC: The Buffaloes and Coach Prime are still in the hunt for the Big 12 championship game when they host the Cowboys. Colorado favored by 16 1/2. Georgia Tech at No. 6 Georgia, 7:30 p.m., ABC: The Bulldogs are on pace for a spot in the CFP but host what could be a tricky game against rival Georgia Tech. Georgia favored by 19 1/2. • NBA. After taking Thanksgiving off, pro basketball returns. Oklahoma City at Los Angeles Lakers, 10 p.m., ESPN: The Thunder look like one of the best teams in the NBA's Western Conference. They'll host Anthony Davis, LeBron James and the Lakers. Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James dunks during the first half of a Nov. 23 game against the Denver Nuggets in Los Angeles. • College Football. There are more matchups with playoff implications. Michigan at No. 2 Ohio State, noon, Fox: The Wolverines are struggling one season after winning the national title. They could make their fan base a whole lot happier with an upset of the Buckeyes. Ohio State favored by 21. No. 7 Tennessee at Vanderbilt, noon, ABC: The Volunteers are a fairly big favorite and have dominated this series, but the Commodores have been a tough team this season and already have achieved a monumental upset over Alabama. Tennessee favored by 11. No. 16 South Carolina at No. 12 Clemson, noon, ESPN: The Palmetto State rivals are both hanging on the edge of the CFP playoff race. A win — particularly for Clemson — would go a long way toward clinching its spot in the field. Clemson favored by 2 1/2. No. 3 Texas at No. 20 Texas A&M, 7:30 p.m. ABC: The Aggies host their in-state rival for the first time since 2011 after the Longhorns joined the SEC. Texas favored by 5 1/2. Washington at No. 1 Oregon, 7:30 p.m., NBC: The top-ranked Ducks have been one of the nation’s best teams all season. They’ll face the Huskies, who would love a marquee win in coach Jedd Fisch’s first season. Oregon favored by 19 1/2. • NBA: A star-studded clash is part of the league's lineup. Golden State at Phoenix, 9 p.m., NBA TV: Steph Curry and the Warriors are set to face the Suns' Big Three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal. • NFL: It's Sunday, that says it all. Pittsburgh at Cincinnati, 1 p.m., CBS: Joe Burrow is having a great season for the Bengals, who are struggling in other areas. They need a win to stay in the playoff race, hosting a Steelers team that's 8-3 and won five of their past six. Bengals favored by 3. Arizona at Minnesota, 1 p.m., Fox: The Cardinals are tied for the top of the NFC West while the Vikings are 9-2 and have been one of the biggest surprises of the season with journeyman Sam Darnold under center. Vikings favored by 3 1/2. Philadelphia at Baltimore, 4:25 p.m., CBS: Two of the league's most electric players will be on the field when Saquon Barkley and the Eagles travel to face Lamar Jackson and the Ravens. Ravens favored by 3. San Francisco at Buffalo, 8:20 p.m. NBC/Peacock: The 49ers try to get back to .500 against the Bills, who have won six straight. Bills favored by 7. • NBA. The best teams in the Eastern Conference meet in a statement game. Boston at Cleveland, 6 p.m., NBA TV: The defending champion Celtics travel to face the Cavs, who won their first 15 games to start the season. • Premier League: English soccer fans have a marquee matchup. Manchester City at Liverpool, 11 a.m., USA Network/Telemundo. The two top teams meet with Manchester City trying to shake off recent struggles. • Auto Racing: The F1 season nears its conclusion. F1 Qatar Grand Prix, 11 a.m., ESPN2 – It's the penultimate race of the season. Max Verstappen already has clinched his fourth consecutive season championship. Before the 2023 National Football League season started, it seemed inevitable that Bill Belichick would end his career as the winningest head coach in league history. He had won six Super Bowls with the New England Patriots and 298 regular-season games, plus 31 playoff games, across his career. Then the 2023 season happened. Belichick's Patriots finished 4-13, the franchise's worst record since 1992. At the end of the year, Belichick and New England owner Robert Kraft agreed to part ways. And now, during the 2024 season, Belichick is on the sideline. He's 26 wins from the #1 spot, a mark he'd reach in little more than two seasons if he maintained his .647 career winning percentage. Will he ascend the summit? It's hard to tell. Belichick would be 73 if he graced the sidelines next season—meaning he'd need to coach until at least 75 to break the all-time mark. Only one other NFL coach has ever helmed a team at age 73: Romeo Crennel in 2020 for the Houston Texans. With Belichick's pursuit of history stalled, it's worth glancing at the legends who have reached the pinnacle of coaching success. Who else stands among the 10 winningest coaches in NFL history? Stacker ranked the coaches with the most all-time regular-season wins using data from Pro Football Reference . These coaches have combined for 36 league championships, which represents 31.6% of all championships won throughout the history of pro football. To learn who made the list, keep reading. You may also like: Ranking the biggest NFL Draft busts of the last 30 years - Seasons coached: 23 - Years active: 1969-91 - Record: 193-148-1 - Winning percentage: .566 - Championships: 4 Chuck Noll's Pittsburgh Steelers were synonymous with success in the 1970s. Behind his defense, known as the Steel Curtain, and offensive stars, including Terry Bradshaw, Franco Harris, and Lynn Swann, Noll led the squad to four Super Bowl victories from 1974 to 1979. Noll's Steelers remain the lone team to win four Super Bowls in six years, though Andy Reid and Kansas City could equal that mark if they win the Lombardi Trophy this season. Noll was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993, two years after retiring. His legacy of coaching success has carried on in Pittsburgh—the club has had only two coaches (Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin) since Noll retired. - Seasons coached: 26 - Years active: 1999-present - Record: 267-145-1 - Winning percentage: .648 - Championships: 3 The only active coach in the top 10, Andy Reid has posted successful runs with both the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City. After reaching the Super Bowl once in 14 years with the Eagles, Reid ratcheted things up with K.C., winning three titles since 2019. As back-to-back defending champions, Reid and Co. are looking this season to become the first franchise to three-peat in the Super Bowl era and the third to do so in NFL history after the Packers of 1929-31 and '65-67. Time will tell if Reid and his offensive wizardry can lead Kansas City to that feat. - Seasons coached: 29 - Years active: 1991-95, 2000-23 - Record: 302-165 - Winning percentage: .647 - Championships: 6 The most successful head coach of the 21st century, Bill Belichick first coached the Cleveland Browns before taking over the New England Patriots in 2000. With the Pats, Belichick combined with quarterback Tom Brady to win six Super Bowls in 18 years. Belichick and New England split after last season when the Patriots went 4-13—the worst record of Belichick's career. His name has swirled around potential coaching openings , but nothing has come of it. Belichick has remained in the media spotlight with his regular slot on the "Monday Night Football" ManningCast. - Seasons coached: 40 - Years active: 1920-29, '33-42, '46-55, '58-67 - Record: 318-148-31 - Winning percentage: .682 - Championships: 6 George Halas was the founder and longtime owner of the Chicago Bears and coached the team across four separate stints. Nicknamed "Papa Bear," he built the ballclub into one of the NFL's premier franchises behind players such as Bronko Nagurski and Sid Luckman. Halas also played for the team, competing as a player-coach in the 1920s. The first coach to study opponents via game film, he was once a baseball player and even made 12 appearances as a member of the New York Yankees in 1919. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 as both a coach and owner. - Seasons coached: 33 - Years active: 1963-95 - Record: 328-156-6 - Winning percentage: .677 - Championships: 2 The winningest head coach in NFL history is Don Shula, who first coached the Baltimore Colts (losing Super Bowl III to Joe Namath and the New York Jets) for seven years before leading the Miami Dolphins for 26 seasons. With the Fins, Shula won back-to-back Super Bowls in 1972 and 1973, a run that included a 17-0 season—the only perfect campaign in NFL history. He also coached quarterback great Dan Marino in the 1980s and '90s, but the pair made it to a Super Bowl just once. Shula was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1997. Story editing by Mike Taylor. Copy editing by Robert Wickwire. Photo selection by Lacy Kerrick. You may also like: The 5 biggest upsets of the 2023-24 NFL regular season Get local news delivered to your inbox!Days after two Albany heavy hitters vetoed the MTA’s next five-year capital plan , an audit released Thursday by the state C omptroller’s office says that the operators of New York’s largest transportation agency has not done enough to save money. Get the Full Story The lack of money savings is centered around “ procurements, ” per state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli. According to the state’s top money big wig, the MTA has “ not done enough to consolidate its procurements across its agencies to save money as was expected under its Transformation Plan. ” The MTA was required by law to create a Transformation Plan by June 30, 2019, which it did. O ne part of the plan was to consolidate procurement for its five operating agencies, MTA Construction and Development, and MTA Headquarters to save money and avoid redundancies , DiNapoli explained. But those actions were not enough, and now the state comptroller believes the MTA needs to take additional steps to better coordinate its purchasing efforts. “T he MTA faces continued pressure to implement its capital programs and savings initiatives, which would benefit from furthering its stated goals of transforming its procurement process, ” DiNapoli said. “ More savings may be possible if it does more to coordinate purchasing among its agencies instead of the status quo of having them procure their needs independently. Consolidation, efficiency, and savings in this area was promised years ago, but has yet to be fully realized .” The audit follows another blow to the MTA this week , when state Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie rejected the agency’s capital plan for 2025-2029 just days before Jan. 1. Delving deeper into Thursday’s audit, the MTA’s “ actual practice of buying goods and services ” has not changed as of September 2023, two years after its October 2021 effective date of consolidation . The audit cites several examples of this lack of progress, mostly with procurement operations, which handles direct purchases of things like parts for train cars and buses. According to the comptroller’s officer, the MTA reported saving $152 million in 2022, but the audit examined $37.7 million of that total and concluded that “ none of it was due to transformation or consolidation .” The audit revealed that the savings were from canceled orders and services that were no longer needed. According to the audit, just $4.29 million of the sampled savings were the result of procurement operations actions. But MTA officials said they largely disagree with the findings. As for consolidation, the agency’s five different procurement departments now fall under one umbrella, with most cost savings coming through construction contracts. “The MTA successfully consolidated and reorganized the agency per the Transformation Plan, forging ahead with less redundancy and red tape,” MTA spokesperson Joana Flores said. “The MTA is still continuously improving business practices with more cost savings and has achieved reduced costs – identifying an additional $100 million in annual recurring savings for a total of $500 million annually, all while providing more subway, bus, and railroad service than ever before.” Riders react Meanwhile, riders’ groups are responding to the MTA’s heavy blows this week. With the capital plan in limbo, public transit users do not know what to expect regarding the future of MTA projects, including signal upgrades and station improvements. “A gain and again, funding uncertainty has turned MTA capital plans into political footballs, with riders caught flailing like Charlie Brown, ” Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA, said. “ Riders deserve a fully funded capital plan now so the MTA can begin the State-of-Good-Repair and system improvement projects we desperately need .” Danny Pearlstein, the Riders Alliance’s policy and communications director, said in response to the audit that riders’ needs are paramount. “Efficiency is a work in progress, but elected leaders can’t make the perfect the enemy of the good when it comes to meeting riders’ needs for safe, reliable, accessible public transit service,” he said.

The NFL's security division is warning players to be aware of professional burglars targeting the homes of pro athletes. The Athletic reported Thursday that the NFL sent a memo to teams that outlines the threat. "The homes of professional athletes across multiple sports leagues have become increasingly targeted for burglaries by organized and skilled groups," read the memo, which was obtained by The Athletic. "Law enforcement officials have noted these groups appear to exploit team schedules to target athletes' homes on game days." NBC News reported Wednesday that law enforcement is working to figure out whether an international crime syndicate is involved. The Athletic reported that the memo includes tips for home security and also gives recommendations about the use of social media, such as not posting photos of items that would attract thieves. Players also learned via the memo how homes are targeted and how burglars enter. Mahomes hasn't said much about the burglary, other than to call it "disappointing" and "frustrating." "I can't get into too many of the details because the investigation is still ongoing," he said. "But obviously something that you don't want to happen to really anybody, but obviously yourself." It's not clear what was stolen from Mahomes' home in Belton, Mo., during the Oct. 6 incident. But Kelce apparently lost $20,000 in cash in the burglary at his home in Leawood, Kan., the following day when the Chiefs played the New Orleans Saints on "Monday Night Football," according to a police report. The burglary at the home of Milwaukee Bucks forward Bobby Portis in River Hills, Wis., occurred Nov. 2 during the Bucks' home game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. He said the perpetrators "took most of my prized possessions" and is offering a reward for the return of his property. "Any info that leads to the return of any of my belongings will be rewarded handsomely," Portis said. "Let me know, thank you." --Field Level MediaHanna Cavinder cozies up to Carson Beck with Georgia QB’s CFP status unclear

Sam Darnold sensed the backside pressure as soon as he dropped back with Minnesota trailing by four points late in the fourth quarter in Seattle, so he moved into a safe space in the pocket and did precisely what the Vikings would prefer him to do with the game on the line. He threw the ball down the field to Justin Jefferson. The perfectly placed throw near the sideline beat double coverage for a 39-yard touchdown that put the Vikings back in front with 3:51 remaining in a 27-24 victory over the Seahawks on Sunday. “It was a great call,” said Jefferson, who had 10 receptions for 144 yards and two scores, all season highs. “I’m not going to say too much about that play, but something went on where me and Sam were on the same page, and he found me and we went up.” The Vikings were understandably coy about the context around the go-ahead touchdown , when Darnold made a difficult on-the-run pass just over cornerback Tariq Woolen that Jefferson deftly twisted to catch next to his backside hip so he could shield the ball from late-breaking safety Julian Love. Darnold saw Love’s shoulders initially shaded inside just enough to believe he couldn’t retreat fast enough to prevent Jefferson from getting the ball. Jefferson also applied some improvisation to his route that Darnold clearly and properly read during the play. “I want those guys to have some freedom in those moments,” coach Kevin O’Connell said. “We do a lot of things with Justin and Sam, seeing the coverage and then with some route opportunities to get to at the line of scrimmage, and I think those guys have just gotten so comfortable with that stuff.” Darnold’s long-delayed breakout performance under O’Connell has been one of the stories of the NFL this season, one that wouldn’t have unfolded as neatly for the third overall pick in the 2018 draft without such synergy between him and his superstar wide receiver. If the Vikings (13-2) win their last two games, they will not only be NFC North champions for the second time in three years but also get the No. 1 seed and the lone first-round bye in the NFC for the playoffs. “Every single game we’re finding different ways to overcome adversity, overcome the different stuff defenses have thrown towards us,” Jefferson said. “Sam has done a great job being a leader.” What’s working The pass rush was strong, with Andrew Van Ginkel recording two sacks and pressure leading to both interceptions of Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith. The Vikings were credited with eight hits on Smith. What needs help The Vikings converted only three of 12 third downs, their second-worst rate of the season. Stock up Theo Jackson, who saw significant playing time at safety with Harrison Smith out, had the game-sealing interception with 49 seconds left. Stock down Tight end Josh Oliver has played 47% of the snaps the last two games, his two lowest usage rates of the season. He dropped the only pass he was thrown on Sunday. Injury report The defense ought to get a big boost this week with the expected return of the 13-year veteran Smith from his first absence in two years when he was sidelined at Seattle with a foot injury. Linebacker Ivan Pace, who has missed four games on injured reserve with a hamstring strain, is also on track to be back with his return to practice. Backup defensive lineman Jalen Redmond, who didn’t play against the Seahawks because of a concussion, has made progress through the protocol, O’Connell said. Backup cornerback Fabian Moreau, who was inactive at Seattle with a hip injury, will continue to be evaluated throughout the week. Key number 13.6% — That’s the third-down conversion allowance rate for the Vikings over the last two games, with Chicago and Seattle combining to go just 3 for 22. The Vikings rank second in the NFL in third-down defense at 33.7% for the season and also rank second on fourth down at 36.7%. Up next The Vikings host Green Bay on Sunday, with the kickoff moved to the late afternoon showcase spot on Fox. If Minnesota loses to the Packers, the Lions will clinch the NFC North and the Vikings would open the playoffs on the road as the No. 5 seed at best. Even if the Lions were to lose at San Francisco on Monday night, the Vikings would need to win at Detroit on Jan. 5 to take the division title. ___ AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFLLinde LIN has outperformed the market over the past 10 years by 1.29% on an annualized basis producing an average annual return of 12.39%. Currently, Linde has a market capitalization of $201.03 billion. Buying $1000 In LIN: If an investor had bought $1000 of LIN stock 10 years ago, it would be worth $3,191.73 today based on a price of $421.00 for LIN at the time of writing. Linde's Performance Over Last 10 Years Finally -- what's the point of all this? The key insight to take from this article is to note how much of a difference compounded returns can make in your cash growth over a period of time. This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and reviewed by an editor. © 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

Liberal GST holiday expected to pass soon as government introduces solo bill

Quest Partners LLC decreased its position in Pfizer Inc. ( NYSE:PFE – Free Report ) by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 19,096 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock after selling 1,266 shares during the period. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in Pfizer were worth $553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter. Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Swiss National Bank increased its position in shares of Pfizer by 0.6% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 16,819,712 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $486,762,000 after acquiring an additional 100,900 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC grew its stake in shares of Pfizer by 80.9% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 508,256 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock worth $14,709,000 after purchasing an additional 227,349 shares during the last quarter. Addison Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Pfizer by 394.2% during the 3rd quarter. Addison Advisors LLC now owns 52,238 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $1,512,000 after purchasing an additional 41,668 shares during the period. KBC Group NV raised its position in Pfizer by 26.0% during the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,105,433 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $89,872,000 after purchasing an additional 639,985 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in Pfizer by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 13,118,764 shares of the biopharmaceutical company’s stock valued at $379,657,000 after purchasing an additional 544,418 shares during the last quarter. 68.36% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors. Pfizer Trading Up 2.0 % Pfizer stock opened at $25.63 on Friday. Pfizer Inc. has a 12 month low of $24.48 and a 12 month high of $31.54. The company has a current ratio of 1.00, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.21 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.57. The company has a market capitalization of $145.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.80 and a beta of 0.67. Pfizer Dividend Announcement The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 2nd. Investors of record on Friday, November 8th will be given a $0.42 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 8th. This represents a $1.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.55%. Pfizer’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 227.03%. Insider Buying and Selling at Pfizer In other Pfizer news, Director Scott Gottlieb acquired 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $28.24 per share, with a total value of $28,240.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 10,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $282,400. This represents a 11.11 % increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink . Company insiders own 0.06% of the company’s stock. Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth PFE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Daiwa America raised Pfizer from a “moderate buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. StockNews.com cut shares of Pfizer from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Pfizer to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Pfizer from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $32.92. View Our Latest Stock Analysis on Pfizer Pfizer Profile ( Free Report ) Pfizer Inc discovers, develops, manufactures, markets, distributes, and sells biopharmaceutical products in the United States, Europe, and internationally. The company offers medicines and vaccines in various therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular metabolic, migraine, and women's health under the Eliquis, Nurtec ODT/Vydura, Zavzpret, and the Premarin family brands; infectious diseases with unmet medical needs under the Prevnar family, Abrysvo, Nimenrix, FSME/IMMUN-TicoVac, and Trumenba brands; and COVID-19 prevention and treatment, and potential future mRNA and antiviral products under the Comirnaty and Paxlovid brands. Read More Want to see what other hedge funds are holding PFE? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Pfizer Inc. ( NYSE:PFE – Free Report ). Receive News & Ratings for Pfizer Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Pfizer and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter .B.C. Premier Eby says U.S. tariffs would be ‘devastating’ for forest industry

The standard Lorem Ipsum passage, used since the 1500s "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.Preview: Hoffenheim vs. FCSB - prediction, team news, lineups

Bayern's Kane bags hat-trick in 3-0 win over Augsburg

Arizona State, Boise State clinch CFP bids as clarity emerges in Pac-12 bowl selection process

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia quarterback Carson Beck was hit on his throwing hand on the final play of an ugly first half and he did not start the second half Saturday in the Southeastern Conference championship game against Texas. Beck was hit by outside linebacker Trey Moore, forcing a fumble recovered by Anthony Hill Jr., who then lost the ball on an errant attempt to extend the play with a lateral as time expired. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings. Get the latest sports news delivered right to your inbox six days a week.

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Wild first season in expanded Big 12 comes down to final weekendDeion Sanders took to social media to congratulate son Shedeur after the Colorado quarterback was named the winner of the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm award. Since becoming the head coach of Colorado, Deion has emerged as one of the noisiest and most prominent names in college football . His son and quarterback Shedeur has impressed for the Buffaloes since transferring from Jackson State, steadily building his stock. Across the 2024 season, Shedeur has thrown for 3,926 yards and 35 touchdowns with eight interceptions on a 74.2 percent completion rate. He also rushed for four scores on 91 carries in 12 games, leading Colorado to a 9-3 record (7-2 Big 12). Bill Belichick hits back at Tom Brady after outlining college football intentions 5 talking points as College Football Playoff seedings released with two shock omissions Shedeur is projected to come off the board early and could even be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft as, alongside Florida’s Cam Ward, the 22-year-old represents the most intriguing quarterback prospect on offer. On Friday, Shedeur was the was named the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award, which is given annually to the nation's top upperclassman quarterback in college football. Deion posted a tribute on Instagram with the caption: “Congratulations Son. I’m PROUD of u. Your speech was awesome, especially starting it with thanking the LORD. #Dad/#CoachPrime” In his acceptance speech, Shedeur began by speaking of his faith and thanked the committee for recognizing his efforts. He said: “I just want to thank God for this opportunity. It was tough looking back, just being at HBCU, coming to Power 5. “People don’t respect how you played, they don’t respect the things you did not because of me, but because of Pops, because of Dad. They just didn’t like him.” Follow us on X for the best and latest in sports news Shedeur, who was also named the Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, is likely yet to play his final game for Colorado. Following the Buffaloes’ crushing 52-0 win over Oklahoma State on Nov. 29, Sanders expects his high-profile senior stars - like Shedeur and Heisman Trophy contender Travis Hunter - to feature in the program’s bowl game later this month. The players will then turn their attention to preparing for the NFL Draft with workouts, pro days, and the combine to come. The bowl will likely be the last time Shedeur plays under his father. Rumors are suggesting Sanders could dictate where he wants Shedeur to play a la Eli Manning and John Elway. Back in July, though, Sanders told reporters he would be happy with Shedeur going to the Las Vegas Raiders . “I love what (Antonio Pierce) brings to the table,” Sanders said. “I don’t want him to lose to the point where he has the ability to get Shedeur. Let’s get that straight. I don’t want that to happen, I really don’t, but I wouldn’t mind if, some kind of way, it happens that (Shedeur) is here.” Want to watch more live sports? Peacock has your favorite sports, shows, and more all in one place. Peacock offers plans starting at $7.99 so you can stream live sports like NFL, Premier League, and Big Ten Football.

Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday, is the first presidential candidate I remember publicly expressing an opinion of. As it turned out, Carter would also be the first (and only) president to publicly express an opinion of me. During Carter’s presidency he was criticized and lampooned, but during his life he was more often hailed for his public service and broad, renaissance mind. Personally, I will always think of him as a man with a dry wit and a sharp tongue. If you’ve ever wondered why Carter was always smiling, it may be because he was a pretty funny guy. My first interaction with the former president was in the spring of 1987. I was the editor-in-chief of the Emory Spoke, the student-run humor magazine at Emory University in Georgia. We published three issues annually, generally blowing our budget on the one published fall semester, a full-color parody of a “real” magazine — “Playspoke” one year, “Spokelights for Children” another. Shortly before my tenure, a copy of a previous editorial team’s “Peeple Spokely” made its way to Time-Life’s corporate counsel. They quickly forbade us from ever again encroaching on one of their titles. It felt as if hellfire, damnation and personal legal ruin would rain down on any student foolish enough to violate their orders. My choice was clear. That fall’s issue would parody Time magazine. “How will we avoid hellfire and damnation?” our managing editor asked. It came to me in a flash. “We’ll put Carter on the cover. ‘Man of the Year’! If they come for us, the publicity will kill ’em.” Because Emory was home to the Carter Center and his presidential library, I leaned hard on every connection I could to make an interview happen. Months after our entreaties began, I was called into the office of the dean who had appeared on the cover of “Rolling Spoke” with a parking cone on his head. The reverence of our irreverence had paid off — we would be granted 30 minutes with Carter, and nothing was off limits. I’ll chalk it up to nerve and not any innate Republican tendencies, but about a month later, on the day of the interview, when Carter walked in the room, I tossed him a T-shirt featuring the Spoke’s logo and told him to put it on for the cover photo. He gamely complied. The interview was sublime — Carter talked about Domino’s deliveries to the White House, Willie Nelson playing on the South Lawn, installing a hi-fi in the Oval Office so he could listen to his friends the Allman Brothers. He shared his biggest presidential regret — not sending a second helicopter on the failed hostage rescue in Iran. We asked what he wanted to say about President Reagan behind his back: “That he is incapable of telling the truth.” When we asked what he’d say to Reagan’s face, he replied, “The same thing.” That got picked up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. When lobbying for the interview, we’d been clear about our satirical bent and forwarded past Spoke issues. During the discussion we restated our provenance as a humor magazine. “I haven’t heard anything funny, yet,” Carter deadpanned. We asked about his patience with journalists, if he ever wanted to haul off and hit a reporter. “Yes,” he said, “and this is one of those times.” After the issue was published, Carter sent me a letter that included the line, “I’m glad my humorous responses more than made up for the lack of that quality in your questions.” Sometimes I still impress myself, remembering that I once traded barbs with a former president. Other days, I’m overwhelmed by the thought that a future Nobel Prize winner called me out on the one thing I thought I was good at. Our paths crossed a few more times, and each time, Carter’s humor was what stood out. At a formal dinner, he dared me to eat the dessert’s floral garnish. Before I could move, he popped it into his mouth. He could have planned that joke to use on anyone who was at the table. But I like to think it was personal, and others who met Carter more than once have told me they also felt a stupefied humility that the onetime leader of the free world remembered them by name. A few years later, I was working on my MBA, again at Emory and Carter visited as a distinguished lecturer. He marched to the lectern and scanned our power-suited crowd. Then he turned to his assistant and said, “You didn’t tell me Binney would be here.” He looked at me, eyebrows raised, and said, politely, “Try to keep up.” My classmates were bewildered. Some in shock, some in awe. How had I pissed off a president? I hadn’t, of course. It was just a perfect opportunity for a man with a sly sense of humor, a good memory and a microphone. A man who made meaningful connections with the people he met, whether on the world stage or a college campus. Robert J. Binney is a screenwriter in Seattle.Jimmy Carter, the 39th US president, has died at 100Syria's embassy in Lebanon suspends services as Lebanon hands over former Syrian army officers

Shares of Nvidia fell Monday after China said it is investigating the high-flying U.S. microchip company over suspected violations of Chinese anti-monopoly laws. In a brief news release with few details, Chinese regulators appear to be focusing on Nvidia’s $6.9 billion acquisition of network and data transmission company Mellanox in 2019. Nvidia shares about 3% Monday. They are still up 179% so far this year. Considered a bellwether for artificial intelligence demand, Nvidia has led the AI sector to become one of the stock market’s biggest companies, as tech giants spend heavily on the company’s chips and data centers needed to train and operate their AI systems. Nvidia’s shares have surged this year along with the California company’s revenue and profit due to AI demand. According to data firm FactSet, about 16% of Nvidia’s revenue comes from China, second only to its U.S.-generated revenue. A spokesperson for the company based in Santa Clara, California, said in an emailed statement that Nvidia is “happy to answer any questions regulators may have about our business.” In its most recent earnings release, Nvidia posted revenue of $35.08 billion, up 94% from $18.12 billion a year ago. Nvidia earned $19.31 billion in the quarter, more than double the $9.24 billion it posted in last year’s third quarter. The earnings release did not break out revenue from China. The company’s market value rocketed to $3.5 trillion recently, passing Microsoft and briefly overtaking Apple as the world’s most valuable company. China’s antitrust investigation follows a report this summer by technology news site The Information that the U.S. Justice Department was investigating complaints from rivals that Nvidia was abusing its market dominance in the chip sector. The allegations reported include Nvidia threatening to punish those who buy products from both itself and its competitors at the same time. David Bieri, an international finance expert at Virginia Tech, said that China’s investigation is “not about what Nvidia is doing in China, per se” but rather a signal to the incoming Trump administration. China, Bieri said, is looking to set the tone of future relations. The Chinese government, he said, is telling the U.S. “don’t mess with us, because all of your darling corporations that your version of capitalism needs to prosper have entanglements” with China. Nvidia will have to revise its strategy in China or come up with provisions in their budgets for the type of uncertainty business with China will bring, Bieri said. “I don’t think this is something that they can shake off,” he said. “I also have a tremendous amount of faith in the brilliance of the management strategy of a corporation like Nvidia to not only pay attention to credit risk, market risk and operational risk, but also to political risk.” Nvidia’s invention of graphics processor chips, or GPUs, in 1999 helped spark the growth of the PC gaming market and redefined computer graphics. Last month, it replaced Intel on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, ending the pioneering semiconductor company’s 25-year run on the index. Unlike Intel, Nvidia designs but doesn’t manufacture its own chips, relying heavily on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., an Intel rival. ___ Associated Press Technology Writer Sarah Parvini in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Southern California's notorious Santa Ana winds were predicted to return Shares of Nvidia fell Monday after China said it is The nominations for the Golden Globe Awards are a starry He’s one of the most famous corporate leaders in the

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SAP SCM Consulting Service Market Set for Exceptional Growth from 2024 to 2032 12-29-2024 06:45 PM CET | Business, Economy, Finances, Banking & Insurance Press release from: Prudent Markets SAP SCM Consulting Service Market The SAP SCM Consulting Service Market 2024-2023 report provides a comprehensive analysis of Types (Online Service, Offline Service), Application (Large Enterprises, SMEs), Analysis of Industry Trends, Growth, and Opportunities, R&D landscape, Data security and privacy concerns Risk Analysis, Pipeline Products, Assumptions, Research Timelines, Secondary Research and Primary Research, Key Insights from Industry Experts, Regional Outlook and Forecast, 2024-2032. Major Players of SAP SCM Consulting Service Market are: Chetu, itelligence, Mindtree, Camelot ITLab, ciber, David Clarke Consulting, Detaysoft, Excellis Health Solutions, Genius Business Solutions, Accentis, Kudos Consultants, New Millennia, Seidor, SID Group, SuperConsulting, HCL Technologies Get PDF Sample Report Now! @ https://www.prudentmarkets.com/sample-request/9169267/ This report provides a deep insight into the global SAP SCM Consulting Service market covering all its essential aspects. This ranges from a macro overview of the market to micro details of the market size, competitive landscape, development trend, niche market, key market drivers and challenges, SWOT analysis, value chain analysis, etc. The analysis helps the reader to shape the competition within the industries and strategies for the competitive environment to enhance the potential profit. Furthermore, it provides a simple framework for evaluating and accessing the position of the business organization. The report structure also focuses on the competitive landscape of the Global SAP SCM Consulting Service Market, this report introduces in detail the market share, market performance, product situation, operation situation, etc. of the main players, which helps the readers in the industry to identify the main competitors and deeply understand the competition pattern of the market. Segmentation of SAP SCM Consulting Service Market- By Type Online Service, Offline Service By Application Large Enterprises, SMEs Geographic Segmentation -North America (USA, Canada, Mexico) -Europe (Germany, UK, France, Russia, Italy, Rest of Europe) -Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, South Korea, India, Southeast Asia, Rest of Asia-Pacific) -South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Rest of South America) -The Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Rest of MEA) Prudent Markets provides attractive discounts that fit your needs. Customization of the reports as per your requirement is also offered. Get in touch with our sales team, who will guarantee you a report that suits your needs. Speak To Our Analyst For A Discussion On The Above Findings, And Ask For A Discount On The Report @ https://www.prudentmarkets.com/discount-request/9169267/ Key Benefits of the Report: This study presents the analytical depiction of the SAP SCM Consulting Service Industry along with the current trends and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets. The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with detailed analysis of the SAP SCM Consulting Service Market share. The current market is quantitatively analyzed from to highlight the Global Gardening Pots Market growth scenario. Porter's five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers & suppliers in the market. The report provides a detailed SAP SCM Consulting Service Market analysis based on competitive intensity and how the competition will take shape in coming years. Key poles of the TOC: Chapter 1 SAP SCM Consulting Service Market Business Overview Chapter 2 Major Breakdown by Type Chapter 3 Major Application Wise Breakdown (Revenue & Volume) Chapter 4 Manufacture Market Breakdown Chapter 5 Sales & Estimates Market Study Chapter 6 Key Manufacturers Production and Sales Market Comparison Breakdown Chapter 8 Manufacturers, Deals and Closings Market Evaluation & Aggressiveness Chapter 9 Key Companies Breakdown by Overall Market Size & Revenue by Type Chapter 11 Business / Industry Chain (Value & Supply Chain Analysis) Chapter 12 Conclusions & Appendix The report covers the competitive analysis of the market. As the demand is driven by a buyer's paying capacity and the rate of item development, the report shows the important regions that will direct growth. This section exclusively shares insight into the budget reports of big-league members of the market helping key players and new entrants understand the potential of investments in the Global SAP SCM Consulting Service Market. It can be better employed by both traditional and new players in the industry for complete know-how of the market. For In-Depth Competitive Analysis - Purchase this Report now at a Complete Table of Contents (Single User License) @ https://www.prudentmarkets.com/checkout/?id=9169267&license_type=su Free Customization on the basis of client requirements on Immediate purchase: 1- Free country-level breakdown of any 5 countries of your interest. 2- Competitive breakdown of segment revenue by market players. Customization of the Report: This report can be customized to meet the client's requirements. Please connect with our sales team (sales@prudentmarkets.com), who will ensure that you get a report that suits your needs. You can also get in touch with our executives on +91 83560 50278 || USA/Canada(Toll Free): 1800-601-6071 to share your research requirements. In conclusion, the SAP SCM Consulting Service Market report is a genuine source for accessing the research data which is projected to exponentially grow your business. The report provides information such as economic scenarios, benefits, limits, trends, market growth rates, and figures. SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis is also incorporated in the report. Contact Us: Allan Carter Andheri, Maharashtra, 400102 USA/Canada(Toll Free): 1800-601-6071 Direct Line: +91 83560 50278 Mail: sales@prudentmarkets.com Web: www.prudentmarkets.com About Us: We are leaders in market analytics, business research, and consulting services for Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, financial & government institutions. Since we understand the criticality of data and insights, we have associated with the top publishers and research firms all specialized in specific domains, ensuring you will receive the most reliable and up to date research data available. To be at our client's disposal whenever they need help on market research and consulting services. We also aim to be their business partners when it comes to making critical business decisions around new market entry, M&A, competitive Intelligence and strategy. This release was published on openPR.Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for Dec. 29, 2024

Pep Guardiola 'proud' of Man City players in defeat to Juventus

SMArtX Advisory Solutions Unveils Q4 Select List Highlighting Elite Investment StrategiesSan Francisco 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy will not play Sunday and head coach Kyle Shanahan said the lingering discomfort is a concern. Purdy sat out Friday after he participated in the start of Thursday's practice with the 49ers, then retreated indoors for what Shanahan said was a treatment session. Brandon Allen, 32, will start in Purdy's place, and the 49ers are also without defensive end Nick Bosa (oblique). Shanahan said players believe in Allen, even if he's an unknown. "Outside of here people haven't seen a lot of Brandon. But it's his second year (with the 49ers)," Shanahan said. "Obviously guys want Brock up, but guys are excited to see Brandon play." Shanahan said they are "a little surprised" Purdy experienced tightness and discomfort in his shoulder after an MRI exam on Monday that showed no long-term cause for concern. "The way it responded this week, it's really up in the air for next week," Shanahan said of Purdy. Allen is familiar to Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, who was an assistant coach with the Rams during Allen's two-year run in Los Angeles. Allen broke into the NFL in 2016 with the Jaguars and is 2-7 in nine career starts. He went 1-2 with the Broncos in 2019 and 1-5 in six starts over two years with the Bengals in 2020 and ‘21. Shanahan said Allen's confidence grew throughout the week and he doesn't anticipate a major change in how he calls the offense. Left tackle Trent Williams (ankle) also missed practice for the third consecutive day. Without disclosing the nature of the ailment to Purdy's throwing shoulder, general manager John Lynch confirmed Friday an MRI exam took place to determine the severity of any injury. Allen worked with the first team most of Thursday and Friday with Joshua Dobbs also taking snaps. Lynch described Purdy's status for the 49ers (5-5) this week as "tenuous." "Hopefully, he makes progress, and we can have a shot at this weekend, but we'll see," Lynch said in an interview with KNBR in San Francisco. "I think it's tenuous." When Purdy was on the field this week, he primarily worked on the side in position-specific drills with QB coach Brian Griese. Williams played through an ankle injury last week after being listed as questionable but exited the stadium with an exaggerated limp on Sunday. Run game coordinator Chris Foerster said the 49ers aren't where they want to be at 5-5 because they haven't won close games, not because of injuries. "Seven games left is like an eternity," Foerster said. "So much can happen. Do the math. What was our record last year? It was 12-5. I was on a 13-win team that was nowhere near as good as the team last year." With or without Purdy, Foerster said the challenge for the 49ers is not to give up the ball to a defense that has 19 takeaways. The 49ers have 13 giveaways this season. --Field Level Media

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Jonah Goldberg Among elites across the ideological spectrum, there's one point of unifying agreement: Americans are bitterly divided. What if that's wrong? What if elites are the ones who are bitterly divided while most Americans are fairly unified? History rarely lines up perfectly with the calendar (the "sixties" didn't really start until the decade was almost over). But politically, the 21st century neatly began in 2000, when the election ended in a tie and the color coding of electoral maps became enshrined as a kind of permanent tribal color war of "red vs. blue." Elite understanding of politics has been stuck in this framework ever since. Politicians and voters have leaned into this alleged political reality, making it seem all the more real in the process. I loathe the phrase "perception is reality," but in politics it has the reifying power of self-fulfilling prophecy. Like rival noble families in medieval Europe, elites have been vying for power and dominance on the arrogant assumption that their subjects share their concern for who rules rather than what the rulers can deliver. Political cartoonists from across country draw up something special for the holiday In 2018, the group More in Common published a massive report on the "hidden tribes" of American politics. The wealthiest and whitest groups were "devoted conservatives" (6%) and "progressive activists" (8%). These tribes dominate the media, the parties and higher education, and they dictate the competing narratives of red vs. blue, particularly on cable news and social media. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of Americans resided in, or were adjacent to, the "exhausted majority." These people, however, "have no narrative," as David Brooks wrote at the time. "They have no coherent philosophic worldview to organize their thinking and compel action." Lacking a narrative might seem like a very postmodern problem, but in a postmodern elite culture, postmodern problems are real problems. It's worth noting that red vs. blue America didn't emerge ex nihilo. The 1990s were a time when the economy and government seemed to be working, at home and abroad. As a result, elites leaned into the narcissism of small differences to gain political and cultural advantage. They remain obsessed with competing, often apocalyptic, narratives. That leaves out most Americans. The gladiatorial combatants of cable news, editorial pages and academia, and their superfan spectators, can afford these fights. Members of the exhausted majority are more interested in mere competence. I think that's the hidden unity elites are missing. This is why we keep throwing incumbent parties out of power: They get elected promising competence but get derailed -- or seduced -- by fan service to, or trolling of, the elites who dominate the national conversation. There's a difference between competence and expertise. One of the most profound political changes in recent years has been the separation of notions of credentialed expertise from real-world competence. This isn't a new theme in American life, but the pandemic and the lurch toward identity politics amplified distrust of experts in unprecedented ways. This is a particular problem for the left because it is far more invested in credentialism than the right. Indeed, some progressives are suddenly realizing they invested too much in the authority of experts and too little in the ability of experts to provide what people want from government, such as affordable housing, decent education and low crime. The New York Times' Ezra Klein says he's tired of defending the authority of government institutions. Rather, "I want them to work." One of the reasons progressives find Trump so offensive is his absolute inability to speak the language of expertise -- which is full of coded elite shibboleths. But Trump veritably shouts the language of competence. I don't mean he is actually competent at governing. But he is effectively blunt about calling leaders, experts and elites -- of both parties -- stupid, ineffective, weak and incompetent. He lost in 2020 because voters didn't believe he was actually good at governing. He won in 2024 because the exhausted majority concluded the Biden administration was bad at it. Nostalgia for the low-inflation pre-pandemic economy was enough to convince voters that Trumpian drama is the tolerable price to pay for a good economy. About 3 out of 4 Americans who experienced "severe hardship" because of inflation voted for Trump. The genius of Trump's most effective ad -- "Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you" -- was that it was simultaneously culture-war red meat and an argument that Harris was more concerned about boutique elite concerns than everyday ones. If Trump can actually deliver competent government, he could make the Republican Party the majority party for a generation. For myriad reasons, that's an if so big it's visible from space. But the opportunity is there -- and has been there all along. Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch: thedispatch.com . Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly!Sean Zam named Head of Sales and Marketing at GC Biopharma USARepublicans rally around Hegseth Trump's Pentagon pick as Gaetz withdraws for attorney general

Michigan's defense of national title fell short, aims to cap lost season with win against Ohio StateA local driver seems to not be worried about driving without insurance. Vancouver police pulled over a Tesla on Nov. 21, 2024, for driving without insurance. It wasn't the first time for this driver this year, according to a social media post by the VPD's traffic section. Or the second. Or the third. In the last year, the driver had been pulled over four times across Metro Vancouver, with incidents in Vancouver, Burnaby, and Coquitlam. Police note he was operating as a rideshare driver at the time he was pulled over. In fact, according to a photo shared by the police, it was the fourth time since May, meaning he's been pulled over more than once every two months for the same issue. "Traffic enforcement used ALPR (Automated Licence Plate Recognition) to catch this driver for no vehicle insurance," state police. Officers issued a $598 for the infraction, and the vehicle was towed. If the driver pays in under 30 days, the fine is reduced to $573; altogether, the fines for driving with no insurance four times add up to at least $2,292. However, while it was the fourth such infraction for the driver this year, his Tesla wasn't impounded, according to the VPD traffic section. "A vehicle with no insurance could be towed to a person’s residence if it can’t be parked on public property," Sgt. Steve Addison tells V.I.A. A note has been sent to the Superintendent of Motor Vehicles and Passengers about the driver, according to the traffic section. The Superintendent of Motor Vehicles and Passengers is a provincial office that acts as the authority for drivers in B.C. and has different powers from the police and can prohibit a person from driving if they have an "unsatisfactory driving record," according to the government .Mystery surrounding Baby Driver star Hudson Joseph Meek's death deepens as police give update By GERMANIA RODRIGUEZ POLEO, CHIEF U.S. REPORTER Published: 20:39, 26 December 2024 | Updated: 20:39, 26 December 2024 e-mail View comments The mystery surrounding the death of Baby Driver star Hudson Meek continues as police say they are treating it as an accident. Police do not believe drugs or alcohol played a role in the 16-year-old's death and have ruled out foul play, TMZ reported on Thursday. However, officials have not revealed any additional details, and it's unclear whether the accident involved a vehicular crash or anyone else. It's also unclear if Hudson had been driving. Meek died on Saturday after being critically injured two days earlier when he was ejected from a moving vehicle in his hometown in Alabama . Meek's family shared a heartbreaking tribute for the actor on their social media. 'Our hearts are broken to share that Hudson Meek went home to be with Jesus tonight,' wrote his mother Lani Wells Meek on Facebook . Police have ruled out foul play in the death of Baby Driver star Hudson Meek at 16 Meek was known for portraying the younger version of the main character in the 2017 action flick Baby Driver The family of Baby Driver star Hudson Meek shared a heartbreaking tribute for the 16-year-old following his tragic death 'His 16 years on this earth were far too short, but he accomplished so much and significantly impacted everyone he met.' The Meek family added that 'Specific details regarding a Celebration of Hudson’s Life to be held on December 28, as well as how to contribute to a scholarship in Hudson’s memory at Vestavia Hills High School in lieu of flowers, will follow. 'Please pray for our family and friends as we all process this sudden and tragic loss.' The actor sustained blunt force trauma after falling from the car at 10.45pm according to the Jefferson County Coroner's Office. He was taken to the UAB Hospital in Birmingham but died from his injuries on Saturday night — less than 48 hours after the coroner said he was thrown from a moving motor vehicle, per ABC 33/40 News. The Vestavia Hills Police Department is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding Meek's death, WVTM reports. He was surrounded by his friends and family when he passed away peacefully, per his obituary. Meek was known for portraying the younger version of the main character in the 2017 action flick Baby Driver. Following his breakthrough role, he went on to star in the reboot of MacGyver. He also made guest appearances on several television series including the NBC drama Found. The actor, pictured in 2015, sustained blunt force trauma after 'falling from a moving vehicle' The Vestavia Hills Police Department is currently investigating the circumstances surrounding Meek's death His professional acting credits date back to 2014 when he first starred in The Santa Con alongside Melissa Joan Hart and Jaleel White. It was revealed that he also worked on several movies and shows to be released posthumously in 2025, according to the obituary. In his memory, his loved ones are establishing the Hudson J. Meek Memorial Scholarship. In lieu of flowers, his family requests donations to the scholarship, which will be awarded annually to a Vestavia Hills High School student. He is survived by father Derek Firth Meek and mother Lani Wells Meek as well as his older brother Tucker Firth Meek and grandmothers Margaret Green Meek and Faye Searcy Wells. DailyMail.com has reached out to the Vestavia police department for more information on Meek's death. Alabama Facebook Share or comment on this article: Mystery surrounding Baby Driver star Hudson Joseph Meek's death deepens as police give update e-mail Add comment

FRISCO, Texas (AP) — A rare win as a double-digit underdog came just in time to let the Dallas Cowboys believe their playoff hopes aren’t completely gone in 2024. Cooper Rush probably will need three more victories in a row filling in for the injured Dak Prescott for any postseason talk to be realistic. The thing is, the Cowboys (4-7) could be favored in two of those games, and already are by four points as an annual Thanksgiving Day host against the New York Giants (2-9) on Thursday, according to BetMGM. Not to mention the losing record at the moment for each of the next four opponents for the defending NFC East champions, playoff qualifiers each of the past three seasons. The Cowboys have a chance to make something of the at Washington that ended a five-game losing streak. “Behind the eight ball,” Micah Parsons said, the star pass rusher acknowledging the reality that Dallas hadn’t done much yet. “Let’s see how we can handle adversity and see if we can make a playoff run. But we got a long way to go.” It was a start, though, powered in part by the best 55 minutes from the Dallas defense since the opener, when the Cowboys dismantled Cleveland and looked the part of a Super Bowl contender. The last five minutes for the Dallas defense against the Commanders looked a lot like most of the nine games after that 33-17 victory over the Browns. Which is to say not very good. Jayden Daniels easily drove Washington 69 yards to a touchdown before throwing an in the final seconds to Terry McLaurin, who weaved through five defenders when a tackle might have ended the game. The Cowboys kept a 27-26 lead thanks to Austin Seibert’s second missed extra point, and withstood another blunder when Juanyeh Thomas returned an onside kick recovery for a TD rather than slide and leave one kneel-down from Rush to end the game. Dallas will have to remember it did hold a dynamic rookie quarterback’s offense to 251 yards before the madness of the ending in the Cowboys’ biggest upset victory since 2010 at the New York Giants. That one was too late to save the season. This one might not be. “We needed it,” embattled coach Mike McCarthy said. “It’s been frustrating, no doubt. We’ve acknowledged that. We’ve got another one right around the corner here, so we have to get some wins and get some momentum.” What’s working Rush ended a personal three-game losing streak with his best showing since the previous time he won as the replacement for Prescott, who is out for the season after surgery for a torn hamstring. The 117.6 passer rating was Rush’s best as a starter, and the NFL’s second-worst rushing attack played a solid complementary role with Rico Dowdle gaining 86 yards on 19 carries. What needs help did more than lift the Cowboys when it appeared an 11-point lead might get away in the final five minutes. It eased the worst day of special teams for Dallas since John Fassel took over that phase four years ago. Suddenly struggling kicker Brandon Aubrey had one field-goal attempt blocked and missed another. Bryan Anger had a punt blocked. For the second time in five games, Aubrey’s attempt to bounce a kickoff in front of the return man backfired. The ball bounced outside the landing zone, putting the Commanders at the 40-yard line to start the second half and setting up the drive to the game’s first touchdown. Stock up CB Josh Butler, whose NFL debut earlier this season came five years after the end of his college career, had 12 tackles, a sack and three pass breakups. The pass breakups were the most by an undrafted Dallas player since 1994. Stock down Rookie LT Tyler Guyton, who has had an up-and-down season with injuries and performance issues, was benched immediately after getting called for a false start in the fourth quarter. His replacement, Asim Richards, could be sidelined with a high ankle sprain that executive vice president of personnel Stephen Jones revealed on his radio show Monday. Veteran Chuma Edoga, who was the projected starter at Guyton’s position before a preseason toe injury, was active but didn’t play against the Commanders. He’s awaiting his season debut. Injuries The status of perennial All-Pro RG Zack Martin (ankle/shoulder) and LG Tyler Smith (ankle/knee) will be a question on the short week after both sat against Washington. Stephen Jones indicated Smith could be available and said the same of WR Brandin Cooks, who hasn’t played since Week 4 because of a knee issue. TE Jake Ferguson may miss at least a second week with a concussion. The short week might make it tough for CB Trevon Diggs (groin/knee) to return. Key number 75% — Rush’s completion rate, his best with at least 10 passes. He was 24 of 32 for 247 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. His other game with multiple TDs and no picks was a 25-10 victory over Washington two years ago, when he went 4-1 with Prescott sidelined by a broken thumb. Next steps There’s some extra rest after the short week, with Cincinnati making a “Monday Night Football” visit on Dec. 9. The next road game is at Carolina on Dec. 15. ___ AP NFL:Matías Tarnopolsky to become New York Philharmonic CEO, teaming with Gustavo Dudamel

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price. Following the court ruling, Tesla shareholders met in June and ratified Musk’s 2018 pay package for a second time, again by an overwhelming margin. Defense attorneys then argued that the second vote makes clear that Tesla shareholders, with full knowledge of the flaws in the 2018 process that McCormick pointed out, were adamant that Musk is entitled to the pay package. They asked the judge to vacate her order directing Tesla to rescind the pay package. McCormick, who seemed skeptical of the defense arguments during an August hearing, said in Monday’s ruling that those arguments were fatally flawed. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion. The judge noted, among other things, that a stockholder vote standing alone cannot ratify a conflicted-controller transaction. “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here due to multiple, material misstatements in the proxy statement,” she added. Meanwhile, McCormick found that the $5.6 billion fee request by the shareholder’s attorneys, which at one time approached $7 billion based on Tesla’s trading price, went too far. “In a case about excessive compensation, that was a bold ask,” McCormick wrote. Attorneys for the Tesla shareholder argue that their work resulted in the “massive” benefit of returning shares to Tesla that otherwise would have gone to Musk and diluted the stock held by other Tesla investors. They value that benefit at $51.4 billion, using the difference between the stock price at the time of McCormick’s January ruling and the strike price of some 304 million stock options granted to Musk. While finding that the methodology used to calculate the fee request was sound, the judge noted that the Delaware’s Supreme Court has noted that fee award guidelines “must yield to the greater policy concern of preventing windfalls to counsel.” “The fee award here must yield in this way, because $5.6 billion is a windfall no matter the methodology used to justify it,” McCormick wrote. A fee award of $345 million, she said, was “an appropriate sum to reward a total victory.” The fee award amounts to almost exactly half the current record $688 million in legal fees awarded in 2008 in litigation stemming from the collapse of Enron.

Motoring News Don't miss out on the headlines from Motoring News. Followed categories will be added to My News. Two of the world’s biggest car manufacturers – well known to Aussie motorists – have said they are exploring merger talks which could drastically change the vehicle market. It’s a further example of the radical restructuring of the automotive industry in the wake of electric vehicles and competition from Chinese brands. Honda and Nissan, both of Japan, have confirmed they are exploring a deal to bring the firms together. Japanese newspaper Nikkei said a memorandum of understanding between the two was expected to be signed as early as next week. “Honda and Nissan are exploring various possibilities for future collaboration, leveraging each other’s strengths,” the companies said in a statement on Tuesday. “If there are any updates, we will inform our stakeholders at the appropriate time.” It’s been reported that rival Japanese car firm Mitsubishi could also be part of any future merger. Nissan owns 24 per cent of Mitsubishi. A three-way tie up could create the world’s third largest car maker with only Japanese rival Toyota and German behemoth Volkswagen bigger. Nissan has 4 per cent of the Australian car market and Honda 6 per cent. (FILES) The emblem of Japanese automaker Nissan Motor is seen at a showroom in Yokohama on May 9, 2024. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP) Nissan and Honda have storied histories but have been t by challenges in recent years. In its most recent financial results, Nissan stated its profit margin had plummeted from 5.6 per cent to just 0.5 per cent over the year while it cut its annual profit margin by 70 per cent. The maker of the Qashqai, Navara and Leaf models was rocked last month when French car giant Renault said it would sell its controlling stake after 25 year of partnership. That led Nissan, founded in 1911, scrambling to find a new backer. “We have 12 or 14 months to survive,” a senior official close to Nissan said. CR-V, Civic and Accord maker Honda is going through a turbulent time too, albeit slightly less rocky. Last month it announced it expected full year profits it be around 14 per cent lower than last year. With a market capitalisation of $68 billion, Honda would be the major partner in any merger with Nissan which is worth $15bn. A Honda logo outside a dealership in Tokyo. (Photo by Philip FONG / AFP) China and US woes Like most western vehicle makers, Nissan and Honda have been heavily invested in the Chinese market. However, the rise of electric vehicles has stymied growth. While booth brands produce EVs, in China home grown manufacturers have grabbed more of the market from foreign brands. In China, brands like BYD and Great Wall are seen as more economical and technologically advanced. Where once Chinese motorists may have shunned Chinese brands now they are being embraced. In the US, and many other overseas markets, Tesla has been outperforming more established vehicle makers EVs. The 2023 Nissan X-Trail ST-L e-power. ‘Left it a bit late’ Talking to US network MSNBC , Peter Wells from the UK’s Cardiff University Centre for Automotive Industry Research said the joining of Honda and Nissan would create economies of scale. “Nissan has been struggling in the market, it’s been struggling at home, it doesn’t have the right product line-up. “There are so many warning signs, so many red flags around Nissan at the moment that something had to happen,” he said. “Whether this is the answer is another question.” But Prof Wells warned “they may have left it a bit late,” and that neither firm has the most current industry tech or products to compete effectively. Chinese car manufacturer BYD is on display at the Essen Motor Show in Essen, western Germany on December 4, 2024. (Photo by Ina FASSBENDER / AFP) The merger talks conformation sent Nissan shares surging by 24 per cent ion Wednesday, US time. Nissan was already close to finalising terms on an electric vehicle partnership with rival Honda. So a more formal merger would not be unexpected. Nissan has been criticised for falling behind on hybrid technology , with rivals such as Toyota, Hyundai and Kia having capitalised on the boom in petrol-electric models. Nissan does offer its own take on the hybrid theme with its e-Power models, which use a petrol engine only as a generator for an electric motor and battery pack. That tech is available in high-grade versions of the Qashqai small SUV and X-Trail family SUV in Australia. – with Matt Campbell and David Campbell. More Coverage Major car brand on brink of collapse Matt Campbell and David Campbell Another nail in Nissan’s coffin exposed David Campbell Originally published as Car giants confirm mega merger talks More related stories Motoring News Nissan’s insane merger call to save company The global Nissan crisis has taken another ugly turn after talk of a merger with a hated rival. Read more Motoring News Kombis don’t look like this anymore Volkswagen finally has an electric car in Australia and it is a fresh take on an old classic. Read more

IAF's Suryakiran Aerobatic Team dazzles Hyderabad skies

Shohei Ohtani wins his third MVP and first in the NL following a historic offensive season with the Los Angeles DodgersThe Bombardier Global 7500 stands as one of the most luxurious and capable business jets in the world, combining cutting-edge technology with unmatched comfort and range . Known for its ability to connect nearly any two cities on Earth, this ultra-long-range jet is a favorite among high-net-worth individuals, corporate executives, and charter services. While the Global 7500 offers unparalleled performance, operating such a sophisticated aircraft comes with significant costs. This guide looks into the breakdown of the various expenses associated with owning, operating, and flying a Bombardier Global 7500 – deep diving into what it takes to keep this world-class jet in the skies. The purchase price of a Bombardier Global 7500 Acquiring a Bombardier Global 7500 is a substantial investment . According to Business Insider , the list price for a new Global 7500 is approximately $75 million. However, the actual purchase price can vary depending on customization options, such as cabin configurations, luxury finishes, and onboard technology upgrades. For those considering a pre-owned Global 7500, you’d still need to fork out an average of $65 million for a 2020 make, per Aviation Trader . Of course, this depends on the aircraft’s age, maintenance history, and total flight hours. While the initial purchase is the most significant cost, it’s only the beginning of the financial commitment required to operate this aircraft. Fixed costs of owning a Bombardier Global 7500 The fixed costs of owning a Global 7500 are expenses that remain constant regardless of how often the aircraft is flown. Aircraft Cost Calculator estimates that – for 450 flying hours a year – the fixed costs of operating a Global 7500 total approximately $1.26 million. Crew salaries represent the largest portion of fixed costs, as the Global 7500 requires a highly trained flight crew, often including a pilot, co-pilot, and flight attendant. Hangar storage costs also depend on the location, with prime airports charging significantly higher fees. Other costs include: Insurance Scheduled maintenance Miscellaneous fixed costs Variable costs of flying a Bombardier Global 7500 Variable costs are directly tied to how much the aircraft is flown. These include fuel, maintenance, landing fees, and catering services. All in all, Aircraft Cost Calculator estimates total variable costs to come up to $2.99 million. The Bombardier Global 7500 is powered by two GE Passport engines, which provide excellent fuel efficiency for an ultra-long-range jet. However, the aircraft consumes approximately 486 gallons of jet fuel per hour, translating to about $2,400 - $3,000 per hour at current fuel prices. On a typical long-haul flight of 6,000 nautical miles, the Global 7500 may burn approximately 25,000 gallons of fuel, costing upwards of $150,000. The Global 7500 is Bombardier's business jet with the longest range. Landing fees vary depending on the airport, with major international hubs charging higher rates. For a Global 7500, landing fees can range from $500 to $3,000 per landing, while overnight parking fees might add a further $200 to $1,000 per night. Next, if you're considering a gourmet experience aboard the Global 7500, catering costs range from $500 to $3,000 per flight, depending on the number of passengers and the quality of food and beverages. And while the Global 7500 is known for its reliability, unscheduled maintenance can occur, adding unexpected costs. Operators should budget $500 - $1,000 per flight hour for this purpose. Considering both fixed and variable costs, the total hourly operating cost of the Bombardier Global 7500 is approximately $9,456 per hour. This estimate includes fuel, maintenance, crew salaries, and other operational expenses. For an operator flying 400 hours annually, the total operating cost would exceed $4 million per year, on top of fixed ownership expenses. Chartering a Bombardier Global 7500 For individuals who wish to enjoy the luxury of a Global 7500 without the financial commitment of ownership, chartering is a viable alternative. The hourly charter rate for a Global 7500 ranges from $12,000 to $18,000, depending on factors such as aircraft availability, route, and additional services requested. Chartering eliminates the need for fixed costs like crew salaries and hangar storage, making it an attractive option for those who only fly occasionally. However, for frequent flyers, ownership might prove more cost-effective in the long run. Benefits of flying the Bombardier Global 7500 Despite its high operating costs, the Bombardier Global 7500 offers unmatched benefits: Range: With a maximum range of 7,700 nautical miles, the Global 7500 can connect city pairs like New York and Hong Kong or Los Angeles and Sydney without refueling. Luxury: The cabin is divided into four customizable zones, including a private suite, dining area, and fully equipped kitchen. Performance: The aircraft’s high-speed cruise capability reduces travel time, while advanced avionics ensure safety and efficiency. The decision to own or charter a Bombardier Global 7500 ultimately depends on one's flying habits and financial resources. For corporations or ultra-high-net-worth individuals who prioritize time savings and luxury, the Global 7500 offers unparalleled value. Chartering is an excellent choice for occasional flyers who want to experience the aircraft's comfort and capabilities without the significant financial commitment. Final thoughts The Bombardier Global 7500 represents the pinnacle of private aviation, delivering unmatched range, luxury, and performance. However, owning and operating this marvel comes with substantial costs, from fixed expenses like crew salaries and maintenance to variable costs such as fuel and landing fees. Whether you’re considering ownership or chartering, understanding the financial aspects is key to making an informed decision. The Global 7500 is not just a mode of transport — it’s a statement of prestige and a gateway to ultimate freedom in the skies.Mohini Dey says AR Rahman is like a father to herJOHNS CREEK, Ga., Dec. 18, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Saia Inc. (NASDAQ: SAIA) announced that Saia LTL Freight has partnered with Tesla to introduce two of the company’s first Tesla Semi trucks to its fleet. As Saia celebrates its 100th anniversary, this collaboration signifies not just a milestone in the carrier’s history but also a bold commitment to the future, exploring the latest technology to better serve its customers. The partnership represents another step forward in sustainable transportation as Saia becomes one of the early testers of Tesla’s state-of-the-art electric semi-trucks. The Tesla Semi brings unparalleled innovation to the logistics industry, reinforcing Saia’s role as a trailblazer for the future of freight transportation. “Our partnership with Tesla underscores our dedication to evolution while staying true to the values that have guided us for the past century,” said Executive Vice President of Operations Patrick Sugar. “As we celebrate 100 years of Saia, we’re focused on building a sustainable and innovative foundation for the next century.” Since its founding in 1924, Saia has been at the forefront of delivering excellence in transportation. The introduction of the Tesla Semi into Saia’s fleet reflects not only the company’s forward-thinking strategy but also its dedication to sustainability and meeting the evolving needs of customers. This collaboration aligns seamlessly with the company’s mission to provide top-tier service while minimizing its environmental footprint. “This collaboration enhances our operational capabilities and exemplifies how Saia is positioning itself for a future where innovation and sustainability drive success,” added Sugar. During a demonstration period held earlier this year, Saia rigorously tested the Tesla Semi in its operations with the tractor evaluated on its range, payload capacity, grade performance, and driver comfort. “We were very impressed with the Tesla Semi as it demonstrated an ability to handle both local and longer haul applications while still delivering notable power and efficiency. During a demonstration earlier this year, we achieved 1.73 kWh per mile,” said Sugar. “Our drivers were equally impressed, noting the smooth acceleration, comfortable design, and its ability to maintain speeds on steep inclines, even while hauling heavy payloads. This feedback underscores the enormous potential of the Tesla Semi.” As Saia celebrates its centennial year, the partnership is another tangible example of how the carrier is working to reduce its carbon footprint by reducing emissions and improving tractor mileage as it seeks to be a good steward of the environment and conduct its operations in a responsible manner. By embracing innovative technology, Saia is setting a new standard for sustainability in logistics and reaffirming its role as a leader in the industry. About Saia, Inc. Saia Inc. (NASDAQ: SAIA) offers customers a wide range of less-than-truckload, non-asset truckload, expedited, and logistics services. With headquarters in Johns Creek, Georgia, Saia LTL Freight operates over 214 terminals across the country and employs more than 15,000 people. Recognized by the American Trucking Associations Safety Management Council for its outstanding safety record and by the Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay program for its efforts to reduce its environmental impact, Saia is also a multi-year recipient of Women In Trucking’s “Top Companies for Women to Work for in Transportation.” For more information on Saia Inc., visit saia.com . For more information, contact: Jeannie S. Jump Senior Marketing and Corporate Affairs Specialist Phone: 770-232-4069 Email: jjump@saia.com

Sports fraternity mourns loss of former PM Manmohan Singh

Australia is about to find out if stopping under-16s accessing social media will protect against harmful content or stifle creativity and block opportunityGeoffrey Hinton says he doesn’t regret the work he did that laid the foundations of artificial intelligence, but wishes he thought of safety sooner. The British-Canadian computer scientist often called the godfather of AI said over the weekend that he doesn’t have any guilty regret, which he said is when someone has done something when they know they shouldn’t have at the time. “In the same circumstances, I would do the same again,” he said of his research, which dates back to the 1980s and has formed the underpinnings of AI. “However, I think it might have been unfortunate in that we’re going to get superintelligence faster than I thought, and I wish I’d thought about safety earlier.” Superintelligence surpasses the abilities of even the smartest humans. Hinton thinks it could arrive in the next five to 20 years and humanity may have to “worry seriously about how we stay in control.” Hinton made his prediction during a press conference in Stockholm, where he is due to a receive the Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday. Hinton, a University of Toronto professor emeritus, and co-laureate John Hopfield, a Princeton University professor, are being given the prize because they developed some of the foundations of machine learning, a computer science that helps AI mimic how humans learn. Hinton kicked off his Nobel week on Saturday with the press conference, where he appeared with laureates in chemistry and economics and was asked about AI safety and regulation. Hinton left a job at Google last year to speak more freely about the technology’s dangers, which he has said could include job losses, bias and discrimination, echo chambers, fake news, battle robots and even the end of humanity. On Saturday, he said he considers lethal autonomous weapons to be a short-term danger. “There isn’t going to be any regulation there,” he said, pointing out that European regulations have a specific clause exempting military use of AI from restrictions. “Governments are unwilling to regulate themselves, when it comes to lethal autonomous weapon, and there is an arms race going on between all the major arms suppliers like the United States, China, Russia, Britain, Israel and possibly even Sweden, though I don’t know.” A day later, Hinton put his concerns about AI aside to deliver a lecture with Hopfield explaining the research that earned them their Nobel. “Today I am going to do something very foolish.” Hinton said in introducing his portion of the pair’s hour-long speech. “I am going to try and describe a complicated technical idea for a general audience without using any equations.” The audience chuckled. The talk began with Hopfield describing a network he invented that could store and reconstruct images in data. It led Hinton to later create the Boltzmann machine, which learns from examples, rather than instructions, and when trained, can recognize familiar characteristics in information, even if it has not seen that data before. Hinton said students in his lab and others run by fellow AI pioneers Yoshua Bengio and Yann LeCun were using Boltzmann machines to pre-train neural networks — machine learning models that make decisions in a manner similar to the human brain — between 2006 and 2011. By 2009, two of Hinton’s students had showed the technique “worked a little bit better than the best existing techniques for recognizing fragments of phonemes in speech and that then changed the speech recognition community,” Hinton said. Phonemes are small units of sound that can change the meaning of a word. Google later began working on technology based on Hinton’s discoveries and “suddenly the speech recognition on the Android got a lot better.” Even though the kind of Boltzmann machines Hinton was working with back then are no longer used in the same ways as he used them, he said “they allowed us to make the transition from thinking that deep neural networks would never work to seeing that deep neural networks actually could be made to work.” Nobel Week will continue Monday with a discussion about the future of health before an awards ceremony and banquet is held Tuesday. Hinton has said he will donate a portion of the prize money — equivalent to about C$1.45 million — he and Hopfield will be given to Water First, which is working to boost Indigenous access to water, and a charity supporting neurodiverse young adults. He is also reportedly due to donate an early Boltzmann chip to the Nobel Prize Museum. The Nobel is not the only prize Hinton scooped up this month. On Friday, he, Bengio, LeCun, Chinese-American computer scientist Fei-Fei Li and Nvidia founder Jensen Huang, were awarded the Vin Future Prize, a US$3 million prize for science breakthroughs in a ceremony in Vietnam. Hinton, Bengio and LeCun previously won the A.M. Turing Award, known as the Nobel Prize of computing, together in 2018. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Dec. 8, 2024.NoneDOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge has reaffirmed her ruling that Tesla must revoke Elon Musk’s multibillion-dollar pay package Chancellor Kathaleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday denied a request by attorneys for Musk and Tesla’s corporate directors to vacate her ruling earlier this year requiring the company to rescind the unprecedented pay package. McCormick also rejected an equally unprecedented and massive fee request by plaintiff attorneys , who argued that they were entitled to legal fees in the form of Tesla stock valued at more than $5 billion. The judge said the attorneys were entitled to a fee award of $345 million. The rulings came in a lawsuit filed by a Tesla stockholder who challenged Musk’s 2018 compensation package. McCormick concluded in January that Musk engineered the landmark pay package in sham negotiations with directors who were not independent. The compensation package initially carried a potential maximum value of about $56 billion, but that sum has fluctuated over the years based on Tesla’s stock price. Following the court ruling, Tesla shareholders met in June and ratified Musk’s 2018 pay package for a second time, again by an overwhelming margin. Defense attorneys then argued that the second vote makes clear that Tesla shareholders, with full knowledge of the flaws in the 2018 process that McCormick pointed out, were adamant that Musk is entitled to the pay package. They asked the judge to vacate her order directing Tesla to rescind the pay package. McCormick, who seemed skeptical of the defense arguments during an August hearing, said in Monday’s ruling that those arguments were fatally flawed. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick wrote in a 103-page opinion. The judge noted, among other things, that a stockholder vote standing alone cannot ratify a conflicted-controller transaction. “Even if a stockholder vote could have a ratifying effect, it could not do so here due to multiple, material misstatements in the proxy statement,” she added. Meanwhile, McCormick found that the $5.6 billion fee request by the shareholder’s attorneys, which at one time approached $7 billion based on Tesla’s trading price, went too far. “In a case about excessive compensation, that was a bold ask,” McCormick wrote. Attorneys for the Tesla shareholder argue that their work resulted in the “massive” benefit of returning shares to Tesla that otherwise would have gone to Musk and diluted the stock held by other Tesla investors. They value that benefit at $51.4 billion, using the difference between the stock price at the time of McCormick’s January ruling and the strike price of some 304 million stock options granted to Musk. While finding that the methodology used to calculate the fee request was sound, the judge noted that the Delaware’s Supreme Court has noted that fee award guidelines “must yield to the greater policy concern of preventing windfalls to counsel.” “The fee award here must yield in this way, because $5.6 billion is a windfall no matter the methodology used to justify it,” McCormick wrote. A fee award of $345 million, she said, was “an appropriate sum to reward a total victory.” The fee award amounts to almost exactly half the current record $688 million in legal fees awarded in 2008 in litigation stemming from the collapse of Enron.

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Daily Post Nigeria Removal of CCT Chairman Justice Danladi Umar unconstitutional – Bauchi lawyers Home News Politics Metro Entertainment Sport News Removal of CCT Chairman Justice Danladi Umar unconstitutional – Bauchi lawyers Published on November 25, 2024 By Timi Owolabi A group of lawyers in Bauchi, known as Lawyers for the Cause of Bauchi, LAWBA, has challenged the removal of Justice Danladi Umar as the Chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT. They declared the removal invalid and unconstitutional. DAILY POST recalls that the Senate removed the chairman of the Code of Conduct Tribunal last week over alleged gross misconduct. The sacking followed a closed-door session lasting over one and a half hours. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, LAWBA’s spokesperson, Nasiru H. Bala, however, described the action as unconstitutional and beyond the Senate’s jurisdiction. LAWBA argued that the removal of the CCT Chairman did not follow the proper constitutional process. Quoting the 1999 Constitution, he said such removal requires the President’s approval and the support of a two-thirds majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. The group explained that Section 157(1) of the Constitution, which the Senate claimed to rely on, does not apply to the CCT. They pointed out that this section only covers other government bodies like the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and the Federal Judicial Service Commission but excludes the CCT. LAWBA stated further that Section 17(3) of the Constitution’s 5th Schedule makes it clear that removing the CCT Chairman must involve both legislative chambers and cannot be done by the Senate alone. The lawyers also noted that the issue has caused widespread debate since July, when the Federal Government first announced its plan to replace the CCT chairman. They stressed that the government must follow the Constitution to avoid undermining democracy and the rule of law. LAWBA urged the Attorney General of the Federation to ensure that the government respects constitutional processes. The group called on the National Assembly to stay within its constitutional powers while urging the Executive to follow proper legal procedures. Related Topics: Bauchi Justice Danladi Umar Don't Miss Deputy Superintendent of Corrections, 15 others kidnapped You may like Health, education get lion share in Bauchi’s 2025 budget Bauchi: Gov Mohammed presents N465bn 2025 budget to Assembly Bauchi approves N70,000 minimum wage, proposes N500bn budget for 2025 Bauchi: Police arrest 2 for murdering man accused of witchcraft Bauchi Police nab ex-convict, five others, recover stolen goods Bauchi, Kebbi, Sokoto most expensive states to live in Nigeria Advertise About Us Contact Us Privacy-Policy Terms Copyright © Daily Post Media LtdSmart Manufacturing And Mobility Leaders: Adapt With Tech In 2025KE Holdings: Upside Is Attractive, But I Prefer To Wait For More Proof

Monday’s ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews in Denver will allow the player, who has played all season, to continue competing in the Mountain West Conference women’s championship scheduled for later this week in Las Vegas. The ruling comes after a lawsuit was filed by nine current players who are suing the Mountain West Conference to challenge the league’s policies for allowing transgender players to participate. The players argued that letting her compete was a safety risk and unfair. While some media have reported those and other details, neither San Jose State nor the forfeiting teams have confirmed the school has a trans women’s volleyball player. The Associated Press is withholding the player’s name because she has not publicly commented on her gender identity. School officials also have declined an interview request with the player. Judge Crews referred to the athlete as an “alleged transgender” player in his ruling and noted that no defendant disputed that San Jose State rosters a transgender woman volleyball player. He said the players who filed the complaint could have sought relief much earlier, noting that the individual universities had acknowledged that not playing their games against San Jose State this season would result in a forfeit in league standings. He also said injunctions are meant to preserve the status quo. The conference policy regarding forfeiting for refusing to play against a team with a transgender player had been in effect since 2022 and the San Jose State player has been on the roster since 2022 – making that the status quo. The player competed at the college level three previous seasons, including two for San Jose State, drawing little attention. This season’s awareness of her identity led to an uproar among some players, pundits, parents and politicians in a political campaign year. The tournament starts Wednesday and continues Friday and Saturday. San Jose State is seeded second. The judge's order maintains the seedings and pairings for the tournament. Several teams refused to play against San Jose State during the season, earning losses in the official standings. Boise State and Wyoming each had two forfeits while Utah State and Nevada both had one. Southern Utah, a member of the Western Athletic Conference, was first to cancel against San Jose State this year. Nevada’s players stated they “refuse to participate in any match that advances injustice against female athletes,” without providing further details. Crews served as a magistrate judge in Colorado’s U.S. District Court for more than five years before President Joe Biden appointed him to serve as a federal judge in January of this year. Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Hanson from Helena, Montana.Saia Partners with Tesla to Launch Two Electric SemisWASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill rallied around Pete Hegseth, Trump’s Pentagon pick, on Thursday even as new details surfaced about allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman in 2017. The GOP embrace of Hegseth came as another controversial Trump nominee, Matt Gaetz, withdrew from consideration for attorney general. Gaetz said it was clear he had become a “distraction” amid pressure on the House to release an ethics report about allegations of his own sexual misconduct. An attorney for two women has said that his clients told House Ethics Committee investigators that Gaetz paid them for sex on multiple occasions beginning in 2017, when Gaetz was a Florida congressman. Fresh questions over the two nominees’ pasts, and their treatment of women, arose with Republicans under pressure from Trump and his allies to quickly confirm his Cabinet. At the same time, his transition has so far balked at the vetting and background checks that have traditionally been required. While few Republican senators have publicly criticized any of Trump’s nominees, it became clear after Gaetz’s withdrawal that many had been harboring private concerns about him. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who served with Gaetz in the House, said it was a “positive move.” Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it was a “positive development.” Maine Sen. Susan Collins said Gaetz “put country first and I am pleased with his decision.” After meeting with Hegseth, though, Republicans rallied around him. “I think he’s going to be in pretty good shape,” said Wicker, who is expected to chair the Senate Armed Services Committee in the next Congress. Republican senators’ careful words, and their early reluctance to publicly question Trump’s picks, illustrated not only their fear of retribution from the incoming president but also some of their hopes that the confirmation process can proceed normally, with proper vetting and background checks that could potentially disqualify problematic nominees earlier. Gaetz withdrew after meeting with senators on Wednesday. Sen. Thom Tillis said Gaetz was “in a pressure cooker” when he decided to withdraw, but suggested that it would have little bearing on Trump’s other nominees. “Transactions — one at a time,” he said. As the Hegseth nomination proceeds, Republicans also appear to be betting that they won’t face much backlash for publicly setting aside the allegations of sexual misconduct — especially after Trump won election after being found liable for sexual abuse last year. Hegseth held a round of private meetings alongside incoming Vice President JD Vance on Thursday in an attempt to shore up support and told reporters afterward: “The matter was fully investigated and I was completely cleared, and that’s where I’m gonna leave it.” A 22-page police report report made public late Wednesday offered the first detailed account of the allegations against him. A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave. The report cited police interviews with the alleged victim, a nurse who treated her, a hotel staffer, another woman at the event and Hegseth. Hegseth’s lawyer, Timothy Palatore, said the incident was “fully investigated and police found the allegations to be false.” Hegseth paid the woman in 2023 as part of a confidential settlement to head off the threat of what he described as a baseless lawsuit, Palatore has said. Wicker played down the allegations against Hegseth, a former Fox News host, saying that “since no charges were brought from the authorities, we only have press reports.” Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., said after his meeting with Hegseth that he “shared with him the fact that I was saddened by the attacks that are coming his way.” Hagerty dismissed the allegations as “a he-said, she-said thing” and called it a “shame” that they were being raised at all. The senator said attention should instead be focused on the Defense Department that Hegseth would head. It’s one of the most complex parts of the federal government with more than 3 million employees, including military service members and civilians. Sexual assault has been a persistent problem in the military, though Pentagon officials have been cautiously optimistic they are seeing a decline in reported sexual assaults among active-duty service members and the military academies. Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, who will be the No. 2 Republican in the Senate next year, said after his meeting with Hegseth that the nominee is a strong candidate who “pledged that the Pentagon will focus on strength and hard power — not the current administration’s woke political agenda.” Senate Republicans are under pressure to hold hearings once they take office in January and confirm nominees as soon as Trump is inaugurated, despite questions about whether Trump’s choices will be properly screened or if some, like Hegseth, have enough experience for the job. Senate Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, who will be the top Democrat on the panel next year, said the reports on Hegseth “emphasized the need for a thorough investigation by the FBI on the background of all the nominees.” It takes a simple majority to approve Cabinet nominations, meaning that if Democrats all opposed a nominee, four Republican senators would also have to defect for any Trump choice to be defeated. Trump has made clear he’s willing to put maximum pressure on Senate Republicans to give him the nominees he wants — even suggesting at one point that they allow him to just appoint his nominees with no Senate votes. But senators insist, for now, that they are not giving up their constitutional power to have a say. “The president has the right to make the nominations that he sees fit, but the Senate also has a responsibility for advice and consent,” said Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota. In the case of Gaetz, he said, “I think there was advice offered rather than consent.”Brayden Point's 4-point night leads the Lightning over the Canucks 4-2

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not appear at former President Donald Trump ’s rally on Saturday in the battleground state following a CNN report about Robinson’s alleged disturbing online posts, an absence that illustrates the liability the gubernatorial candidate poses for Trump and downballot GOP candidates. Robinson is not expected to attend the event in Wilmington, according to a person on the Trump campaign and a second person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning. Robinson has been a frequent presence at Trump's North Carolina campaign stops. The Republican nominee has referred to Robinson, who is Black, as “Martin Luther King on steroids" and long praised him. But in the wake of Thursday's CNN report , the Trump campaign issued a statement that didn't mention Robinson and instead spoke generally about how North Carolina was key to the campaign's efforts. Robinson's campaign didn't respond to a text Friday seeking confirmation on his Saturday plans. The deadline in state law for Robinson to withdraw as the Republican candidate for governor passed late Thursday. State Republican leaders could have picked a replacement had a withdrawal occurred. Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include racial and sexual comments. He said he wouldn't be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.” While Robinson won his GOP gubernatorial primary in March, he's been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein , the state's attorney general. “Let me reassure you the things that you will see in that story — those are not the words of Mark Robinson,” he told supporters in a video released Thursday by his campaign. “You know my words. You know my character.” State law says a gubernatorial nominee had until the day before the first absentee ballots requested by military and overseas voters are distributed to withdraw. They were distributed starting Friday. Robinson has a history of inflammatory comments that Stein has said made him too extreme to lead North Carolina. They already have contributed to the prospect that campaign struggles for Robinson could help Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris win the state’s 16 electoral votes. Democrats jumped on Robinson and other Republicans after the report aired, showing on social media photos of Robinson with Trump or with other GOP candidates, attempting to tarnish them by association. Losing swing district races for a congressional seat and the General Assembly would endanger the GOP’s control of the U.S. House and retaining veto-proof majorities at the legislature. “The fallout is going to be huge,” Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, said Friday. “The Democrats are counting on this ... having a big effect.” But Cooper said Republicans could limit problems to the governor's race only if upward ticket-splitting trends among voters continue. Harris' campaign rolled out a new ad Friday it calls the first to link Trump to a down-ballot candidate. The commercial alternates between Trump’s praise for Robinson and the lieutenant governor’s comments which his critics have argued show his support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. Robinson's campaign have said that's not true. The Democratic National Committee is also running billboards in three major North Carolina cities showing a photo of Robinson and Trump and comments Trump has said about him. And a fundraising appeal Friday by Jeff Jackson, Democratic attorney general candidate, also includes a past video showing Republican opponent Dan Bishop saying he endorsed Robinson. “Every North Carolinian when they go to vote ought to look at whether a candidate has done that, because that sends a strong message about who you are as a candidate,” Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a top Harris surrogate, said at a Friday news conference. CNN's story, which describes a series of comments that it said Robinson posted on the message board more than a decade ago, sent tremors through the state’s political class, particularly Republicans. While the state Republican Party came to Robinson’s defense late Thursday pointing out he's “categorically denied the allegations,” party Chairman Jason Simmons put out his own statement Friday calling them “deeply troubling” and that Robinson "needs to explain them to the people of North Carolina.” U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis , R-N.C., who endorsed a Robinson rival in the primary, said on X that Thursday “was a tough day, but we must stay focused on the races we can win.” He didn't mention the governor's race. U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson of North Carolina, chairman of House Republicans' campaign arm, discounted Robinson’s impact in North Carolina congressional races. CNN reported that Robinson, who would be North Carolina’s first Black governor, attacked on the message board civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in searing terms and once referred to himself as a “black NAZI.” CNN also reported that Robinson wrote of being aroused by a memory of “peeping” women in gym showers when he was 14 along with an appreciation of transgender pornography. Robinson at one point referred to himself as a “perv,” according to CNN. The Associated Press has not independently confirmed that Robinson wrote and posted the messages. CNN said it matched details of the account on the pornographic website forum to other online accounts held by Robinson by comparing usernames, a known email address and his full name. CNN reported that details discussed by the account holder matched Robinson’s age, length of marriage and other biographical information. It also compared figures of speech that were used in his public Facebook profile and that appeared in discussions by the account on the pornographic website. This story was first published on Sep. 20, 2024. It was updated on Nov. 22, 2024 to correct which of Robinson’s social media accounts CNN cited in a comparison to language in messages from a pornographic website message board. CNN cited his public Facebook account, not his Twitter account. Price reported from New York. Associated Press writers Kevin Freking in Washington, Meg Kinnard in Chapin, South Carolina and Makiya Seminera in Raleigh contributed to this report. Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.Optima names education innovator Adam Mangana as CEO

The UN nuclear watchdog's board of governors passed a resolution chiding Iran's poor cooperation with the agency after hours of heated exchanges, diplomats told AFP late on Thursday, a move Tehran called "politically motivated". The censure motion brought by Britain, France, Germany and the United States at the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board follows a similar one in June. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.None